The Mother of Heirs
by AoifeWrites
Summary: In an post war peace era, Society is controlled by the smartest minds and a Royal Family, The Cullens. Follow shy and simple Bella as she goes through the trials to become the next princess for the heir to the throne. Will she be selected to become the next Mother of Heirs? AH E/B Future Lemons
1. Chapter 1

**New story that has been bouncing around in my head. Not sure how quick the updates will be, as this is going to have to be very indepth so I don't lose anyone.**

**Enjoy!**

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><p>The Mother of Heirs<p>

A Twilight FanFiction.

The way we live is much different from what the histories say. The past was filled with violence, greed, and vast destruction. Before the time that the scholars now call the Planet Rebirth, humankind was on a path that would kill the planet and everyone among it.

The Planet Rebirth came after the great wars that ravished our homes and destroyed its multitudes of government. It is when the smartest minds left alive came together as one – The Forum – and solved the worlds issues one at a time; often a process that was agonizingly extensive.

They created edicts what we know now as the Great Four—a practice to live by.

First – Survival: Changing the way we lived, exterminating the practices that harmed our planet and our own persons. People were forced to move into groups, each on a place of earth that could sustain itself without harmful chemicals, deforesting, or considerable changes to natural water movement. Each family within the group with a specific job or specialty to further continuance for the entire group. Basic practices such as gardening, handwork, and compassion were returned; no longer replaced by machines and mock items.

Second – Reduction of the Corrosive, the diseased: Every person living was extensively tested physically, psychologically, genetically, and for intelligence. Those with extreme genetic abnormalities were slowly denied approval to reproduce over vast amounts of time. Many thought this to be extreme and uncivil, but after careful genetic monitoring, and advances in medical technology, diseases such as cancer and cystic fibrosis no longer dominate medical care. It is simple things like injuries and birthing that the medical facilities are used for. There is no worry about famine or war, there is no aggression. _Wants_ have been replaced with _needs_ and our society as a whole is happy and content. Our needs are met and we have been taught of what greed, selflessness, and luxuries will get us.

We learnt from history.

Third – Submission: Understanding the changes of Society and living daily by them. Negative thoughts, bullying were all things of the past. We are taught 'to disrespect another is to disrespect one's self.' We learned to no longer try to challenge the things we were not comfortable with and trust in The Forum as a governing form. For they are the smartest minds, uncorrupted; which has our needs in the forefront of their minds.

Fourth – Structure: Create an observable governorship. With The Forum being a closed affair, only open to those deemed worthy, a conscience agreement among first members was that Society needed visual leadership. A member of The Forum, tested by The Forum, to be both the eyes of the people and watchmen of The Forum. A member who's line would be bred to perfection and granted Society-long membership to The Forum.

A royal line – The Cullen's.

Within the fourth edict a procedure called Commission – a process in which a mate is selected to bear or bore the new line of heirs. Each of the royal children – ordinarily many – go through testing created and evolved by The Forum to decide who has the best qualities to rule. Once decided upon the Prince or Princesses in order of selection begin Commission in hopes of bettering the genetic line. Commission is kept secret and only a select few truly know what happens. What we do know is those who are considered and tested for Commission are called The Collection, and that the elimination of the collected is ongoing throughout the process. The only one who knows the entire procedure is the one which is selected to be wed.

The mate selected is referred to as 'The Prime' – The Mother of Heirs.

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><p><strong>AN So? Scrap it, keep it? **

**Reviews Please!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Since I received so many wonderful reviews after the first chapter I thought I would treat you to the next!**

**Not beta'd, errors are my own.**

**Enjoy**!

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><p>Bella POV<p>

As I sat at home doing my work my mind wanders as it usually does and I think of how proud I am of my father. He tested with aptitude for leadership and enforcement so he had been appointed Commander of our home group. A commanders duty was to oversee daily operations, protect the wellbeing of the group and be a delegate with our government The Forum. My father Charles Swan, simply Charlie to everyone is a simple man much like me. He cares deeply for all those he protects and loves me with all his heart. He is a quiet man and doesn't often express his feelings verbally, but with being quiet comes awareness and I never have trouble feeling the love he has for me, even though he rarely utters a word.

As a commanders daughter I was highly expected to be an outstanding person of Society. Despite being an only child to a single parent – an anomaly in today's life, I was living up to standards. Though if I didn't the only disappointment would be held within myself. A person could only be what they could be and we were lucky to have them and whatever they could give back to Society. There was no need to feel pressured to better ourselves as we were taught that we already knew who were are and that The Forum will eventually put us into the right roles to support Society. Greed was non-existent, jealousy a thing of the past; replaced with love, happiness, selflessness. The end answer to being the perfect life for all, exactly what The Forum had set out to accomplish.

I prided myself on being kind and caring. I excelled at my studies and have even taken on a job that was usually performed by an adult, not a child. I am still a child, only of 17 years, and will soon take the next step in life including my adult testing to ascertain what my ability to help Society is. I was given a simple task of growing a vegetable on my roof top garden that our group hadn't had access to for a long time. Our society was built to be dynamic; ever changing, ever adapting. Though our needs are met and we want for nothing, variety made the day less mundane.

The upcoming transition in life is usually met with fear and trepidation. Our lives are so consistent that young ones such as myself often fear change. I however am excited for a bit of change, I do not know what I am capable of achieving but I know I am ready. I worry about my father the closer the time comes, I am all that he has left. He has lost so much in his lifetime and I sometimes see the grief strike his features for a fraction of a moment. He lost my mother shortly after I had turned one year old. She had fallen to a clot in her brain shortly after dad had went to work and wasn't discovered until neighbors heard me crying and called for help. Too much time had passed for the doctors to save her and I was motherless from then on. His parents passed just a year after my mom and besides me, there was no more family to lose.

It is nearing dusk as I hear my father's cruiser approach our house. I quickly put away my gardening supplies and rush down to greet him by the door. A smile forms on his face as I come into view and he opens his arms for me to run into them. I give him a hug knowing that he didn't mind my soiled clothes, he was proud that I would give my time away to benefit our group.

"Bella," he breaths out in relief. He always seems grateful that I am at home waiting for him. Since the loss of my mother he is much more thankful for the things he has and treasures me a bit more than I would expect from a parent.

"Hi Dad, how was Society today?"

"Exciting," he replies. "There is to be a broadcast from the Palace this evening."

"I hadn't heard, I was on the roof. To be honest I got lost in the quiet." He chuckles, his thick mustache brushing his lips. I always start daydreaming while doing my very calming work, just me and the plants. "Do we know what it will be about?"

"There is speculation that The Forum has selected the order of succession." His big brown eyes watches me closely for my reaction.

"Already? Prince Edward just came of age." A person of Society is usually tested around their 18th birthday, sometimes slightly earlier or later if warranted.

"Time has passed Bella, it has been nearly three months since his birthday. But that doesn't surprise me as you always seem to get caught up in your head," he snickers good heartedly.

"I suppose it has," I smile at his easy teasing. "Who do you think will be first select?" I ask excitedly. Order of succession becomes a part of the heir's name after testing. Whoever to be selected first will bear the title of Prince or Princess First Select.

"I truly do not know Bella, we shall find out shortly though." He laughs at my giddy bouncing and leads me further into the house with a gentle hand on my back. I don't have a very social life, so I tend to speculate on the royal household a lot. I often wonder if life is so different for them, or they are just like us.

We had a quiet dinner like we always do. A diet of fresh organic vegetables and lean protein to keep our bodies healthy. An unhealthy body was a burden on Society and decreased chances of being chosen for higher opportunities.

After cleaning up we took a seat in our viewing area and soon the broadcast started.

The immediate Royal family was in full attendance. King Carlisle stood tall and proud, his blond hair waving in the breeze. Next to him the Prime Queen, with a beaming smile looking beautiful with her long perfect hair in an ivory gown. Ivory being the color that we often seen the royals wearing. It was one of very few things that separated them from us. The three princes were seated behind them, all obviously nervous.

The eldest Prince Emmett now at the age of 22, was built like an ox; broad shoulders, muscular arms, wide stance. He had the darkest hair of the family which sat in short tight curls on his head. A whisper comes from Prince Jasper next to him and Prince Emmett visible relaxes and dawns a smirk on his chiseled face.

Prince Jasper next to him, 20 years now was almost the complete opposite of Prince Emmett. He had longer blond wavy hair, a leaner body, and stood just a small amount shorted then his older brother. He has always been the calmest throughout the years, but his eyes shows the excitement he is watching. He seems to be analyzing everything, figuring the world out and absorbing it.

Prince Edward sat on the end more nervous than the others. Although he sat up back straight, his head is hung low and he wrings his hand out rapidly. Tall and handsome just like his brother only with copper hair, a sharp jaw and breathtaking green eyes that seem to pierce right through my heart when the camera captures the right angle.

There is not much we know about Commission, only that we trust in The Forum to give us the absolute best candidate to bear the next line of heirs. The one selected is called The Prime, and forever holds that title whether it be prince or princess, queen or king. Being selected Prime is considered a great honor. To be born a commoner, then to be the given the right to bear the next line of the Royal family is said to bring great luck to your family.

"Dad, do the princes not know the order of selection?" I ask taking in there visible anxiety.

"No, only The Forum and the King and Prime Queen know. They say it's to add for an element of surprise. But really its to prove to Society how good their bloodline is, how mature then can be. To show Society that they trust in the methods of The Forum as well as we do. You will see no disappointment, anger, or sadness from any of them. They will be glad to serve in any form that they can." He explains.

"I would hope that I could be that selfless, but I fear that my hunger to help would make me jealous of a sibling if they were to succeed over me." I say with a sigh, I would be a disappointment of myself if that were to happen.

"That's not true Bella, you just can't understand the dynamics of a larger family." He replies wistfully.

"You have a point Dad, I do not know how I would feel to have siblings or how to behave with them."

"You talk like you would be different. But you wouldn't, you would be the same loving and caring person you are today." He says proudly. I stay quiet with a smile on my face and blush at his compliment of me while the broadcast starts.

_As many have probably speculated about, The Forum has finished testing and has chosen the selection order of succession. The selection is awarded to the heir with the best aptitude to lead our Society. _

The King states with his bride calmly at his side.

_I am extremely proud of my sons Emmett, Jasper and Edward. I have no preference in which is to be heir, for all have the qualities to lead. I have the utmost faith in The Forum, and our customs; for they have allowed us to become the peaceful community that we are today. Without further ado, I King Carlisle , my wife The Prime Queen Esme with the supreme aid of The Forum hereby name Prince Edward as Prince First Select, heir to the throne, one day to be crowned King of our society._

Smiles erupted all the princes faces as Emmett and Jasper are quick to congratulate their brother. The crowd that had gathered burst in cheers, which they would have done so no matter which prince was named heir.

_Furthermore, Prince Third Select Jasper has been unequivocally chosen for leadership in communication and peace keeping of the outland borders._

The crowd gasps while my father grasps my hand tightly. The outland borders were very dangerous and only the bravest logical men are selected for duty. Each man has a right to decline, but few do. I look to my father confused by the crowds reaction, as if he hears my silent question he begins to explain. "A royal has never been chosen for this. It is said that the Outland Border Peacekeeper has the most strategic mind of us all. That they are able to process multiple outcomes simultaneously to benefit the Society. What a great honor for the royal family. I am surprised that he was chosen for such a job as they usually like to keep the royal family out of harm's way. I guess this just proves to us how intelligent Prince Jasper really is."

The happy looks on Prince Emmett and Edwards faces are a complete opposite to Jaspers utter shock. His brothers congratulate him excitedly with hugs and back slaps, the shock wears and profound joy is now apparent on his face.

_Prince Jasper will soon begin training for this task immediately._

King Carlisle waits until the cheers die down again before continuing with a more serious gaze.

_Although the timeline for Commission is usually a few years down the road, we have decided to announce Prince Second Select Emmett as delegate to oversee Commission of Prime Queen, mother of heirs, for Prince Edward._

King Carlisle continues louder than before to ensure that his voice would be heard over the cheers of the crowd.

_The Forum has requested Commission be started right away, so that the second and third Commissions for Prince Emmett and Prince Jasper can take place in time with Prince Jaspers end of training. Prince Edward will be the youngest to start Commission, therefore the Collection will also be of a younger age. We understand there may be concerns about this, and The Forum has set in place a few new policies to combat possible issues that arise. I thank you for your time and your support for this broadcast._

The King and Prime Queen rush to their sons and congratulate them as the broadcast ends. "Delegate? I've never heard of that before." I say to my father.

"It hasn't been used in many cycles. The Delegate oversees the Commission usually with a younger heir. With Edward being just 18 they want to make sure that he has someone to lean on. Though I'm not sure if it has ever been an older brother. As far as I know it's usually an Aunt or Uncle that is chosen. That means Emmett tested will in reasoning, he is probably able to respect wishes and help make decisions for others well. Which is highly surprising as all reports of Emmett suggest hi is very playful, the trickster of the palace." My father chuckles.

"I wonder if I know anyone who will be in the collection." I think out loud, perhaps some of the lovely girls at school.

"Bells," he sighs using my nickname. "I hope you understand that you will likely not be chosen for the collection. Never has there been a Prime from an incomplete home." He says it sadly and quietly, as if breaking my heart. But I already knew this.

"Dad, I know. And I am not saddened by this, I am not selfish to want something that I cannot fully be. I live a simple life and do not know the first things about ruling Society. I'm sure they will find a Prime better suited to bear the heirs." I say to him, to which he responds with a proud grin and embraces me tightly.

"You amaze me everyday Bella."

"Thanks Dad."

We head up to bed to rest for whatever the upcoming day may bring.

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><p><strong>AN So what did you guys think after getting to know Society and Bella a bit better?**

**Reviews are like Dr. Pepper, I'm never satisfied with just one. Drop a line even if you didn't like it, I would love to hear what you think!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Not beta'd, all mistakes my own!**

**I don't own Twilight, nor would I want all that attention.**

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><p><strong>BPOV<strong>

"Since this is topic of a lot of conversation today let's skip ahead and talk about Commission." Mr. Berty says while writing the appropriate page numbers to turn to in our text. "In simple terms what is Commission?"

"The Commission is specific testing to find a bride for the princes." Mike Newton speaks out first. He seems eager to teachers but those who see him more often know that he just requires more attention than others. He can have all the attention he wants when it draws eyes away from me. Although drawing his attention away from me has been more than difficult at time, he is always asking me to the age appropriate social functions that our group holds. I have a household to take care of, not that it bothers me or takes away from time for social events, but it is a great excuse.

"And if we had no princes?" Mr. Berty asks.

"The process works the same; they would be looking for a prince." Angela Weber answers. I consider Angela my closest friend; we understand each other and keep our heads in our books, sometimes just simply sitting by one another is enough social interaction.

"Good Angela, now what is the group called that will go through testing?"

"The Collection." Jessica Stanley shouts out perhaps a bit too loud. She sits straight in her chair, hair always perfect and her voice is seems to be a bit nasally and projected; all things I do not do. Confidence, I've never had much besides the things that are comfortable to me. Home, I'm comfortable at home mostly. Where I know I don't have to try to be anyone other than who I already am to be loved. Here at school I'm nervous, scared to be judged. My classmates aren't mean, they don't say hurtful things but all in the same I feel I see something in there eyes. I know I will never be considered an equal to them, always below and I'm okay with that.

"Good, we know the basics, let's have a discussion. Does anyone have any questions?" Mr. Berty asks.

Erik Yorkie, a shorter bemused young man raises his hand first and Mr. Berty nods at him to speak. "We don't know much about the entire process, but what are qualities they are looking for?"

"We won't know much about that either, it all depends on the testing that Prince Edward has gone through. They select whatever qualities that his bloodline needs to improve on. Example, around 500 years after The Rebirth, it was thought by public opinion that the royal family's eyes were too far apart. So The Forum collected those in which eyes were an acceptable distance apart."

"That's it? Chosen just for physical appearance?" Erik says conveying his distaste.

"No absolutely not, it was just one factor they were looking for. They try to find a prime that can better the bloodline as a whole, which may include physical appearance, intelligence, compassion, and emotional types of attributes are things that they look at."

"Is there anything that will exclude anyone from being a candidate?" Angela asks quietly.

"Obvious things like genetic abnormalities and lower intelligence. A history of mental disease or infertility will disqualify someone immediately. That is what Commission is about, eliminating those who are not deemed worthy of being the Mother of Heirs."

I know what my father had said about me not being selected based on my incomplete family, and I trust my father, but I can't help to ask Mr. Berty's opinion. I raise my hand and he nods at me, "My father mentioned that there has never been a Prime from an incomplete family. Is this true?"

"Yes it is true, although there is no documentation that says it isn't possible."

"That would be unwise would it not?" I ask.

"What would?" Mr. Berty.

"For The Forum to even consider a candidate from a broken home. A loss of a parent leaves a mark on the soul, a mark so deep that you can never recover." I say softly, suddenly aware of the eyes that have turned my direction.

"Do you believe that Miss Swan? Do you believe that you have never recovered?" I nod my head. "Tell me this Miss Swan, what in your life is different because you only have one parent."

"I've had to take on more responsibility. I take care of my household so that my father can continue to serve Society as he has been granted."

"And do you feel that this makes you unqualified to one day get married and have children of your own?"

"Certainly not, perhaps it prepared me more." I say honestly.

"But not for the royal line?" Mr. Berty says with a grin.

"That would be selfish." I say firmly.

"How so?" he ask quizzically.

"To want something for Society that I cannot fully give that would be selfish. I do not know how to function in a large family; I do not have love that large. I have loved one person as long as I can remember. The royal bloodline deserves better."

"Something to think on then." Mr. Berty finishes. All eyes turn forward again, yet I still find myself sinking down in my chair, using my desk as protection.

I try not to let the discussion occupy my mind, but I haven't been successful. All day I thought about the words I said and came to realize that perhaps I wasn't even fit for motherhood. I have always been a logical thinker and am bluntly honest with myself. I often see people being disappointed, and I feel that if they were more honest with themselves that they would never have to feel that.

I must keep my head in the books and try to do my best, and trust in The Forum to tell me what I would be best doing. And also trust in The Forum to give us the rulers that we need.

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><p>"I'll get it." Dad says getting up after the front bell rang. I could hear voices talking but couldn't make out anything they were saying. I continue cleaning up the kitchen after our dinner.<p>

Dad walked in carrying two medium sized boxes. "What's that?" my curiosity piqued.

"This one," he says pointing to the top "is our group collection packet about commission. Mr. Jenks told me that all we need to know for the group is in here."

"What about the other box?" I say while looking through my bag for my homework.

"It's your testing packet." He says solemnly.

"What? But that's too soon." I shouldn't start testing for at least six more months, if not another year, closer to my 18th birthday.

"Mr. Jenks was informed by The Forum that based on your previous testing when you were 14, that there is need to begin your testing immediately." Mr. Jenks was the lead communicator with The Forum. He basically delivered documents from them as The Forum doesn't have communication with members of society directly.

"Whatever For? I haven't even finished basic studies yet." I say exasperated.

My father pretends to be busy looking through the boxes when he mumbles something so quietly I'm not sure I heard anything. "Dad, did Mr. Jenks tell you why?" I inquire.

He looks up at me sheepishly and repeats what he said before. Still to quiet and jumbled to understand.

"I can't understand you." I say frustrated.

"Collection."

"Collection?" I ask truly unsure of what he means. It couldn't be collection for prime. "What collection?"

He looks into my eyes and takes a deep breath before beginning to speak. "The Forum has requested further testing of you. Based on your younger tests you have been chosen as a possible candidate for commission. If you pass their tests you will be part of the Collection for Prime." He says slowly and clearly.

I laugh so hard that my belly starts to ache. I laugh until I snort and laugh some more.

I laugh until I realize he is not playing a joke on me.

"You're serious?" I squeak out, all breath has seemed to leave my body hastily. A thin layer of sweat forms on my brow, and my arms begin to prickle with goose bumps.

"Yes, I am being serious." He says, talking slowly again.

"I am not sure what I should be feeling? Should I be happy or sad? I look at you and I'm confused. This is supposed to be a great honor, yet you sit here saddened." I say increasingly more frustrated at my father's reaction.

"Yes this is a great honor," he defends. "I had just hoped that you would be matched here close to home, perhaps to Jacob."

"Jacob?" I screech. "I would never consent to that, Jacob is a dear friend, who I have never harbored romantic feelings for." Jacob was the son of my father's good friend Billy. He and I have grown up together.

"Have you felt romantic feelings for anyone?" He scoffs.

I turn to sit down on the nearest chair, my head slumped and hands folded, his words slicing through me. I understand that most girls hold curiosity for the opposite gender, but for me I have felt no need for that. No time to waste. I should study, work hard, and make my father proud. Yet in this moment I have failed him. I've misread who he wanted me to become and I have failed.

He notices my change in demeanor quickly and begins to apologize while coming to me and grabbing hold of my hands. "I didn't mean anything by that."

"For years I had been watchful of the young men around your age. I am so fearful that you would sacrifice your happiness to make me proud. I only want you to be happy. You put others first, sometimes without any thought about yourself. You have always taken such good care of me and this house; I was hoping that you would let someone take care of you. Jacob would do that for you, he would be an equal to you." He explains. "I thought perhaps Jacob would make you happy. He is a fine man with a promising future."

He is quiet for a moment I think to let me ponder what he has said. "I only want you happy."

"I understand." I say solemnly. "I just want to make you proud, you always seemed happy to see me study."

"This is what I mean, you put others before yourself." He tells me. The room is quiet for a few minutes, both my father and I digesting things we have said.

"Is this really about my happiness or you being alone?" I ask suddenly becoming aware of why he feels like he does.

I cannot see his face only his back as he has turned away from me. After a few moments I know I had guessed right. He stayed silent until his shoulders began to shake and a sob ripped from his body.

Refusing to turn around in his shame I walk slowly towards him and put my hands on his back. Tears running down my face I cry with my father, cheek to his back as we mourn my mother together again.

"I just didn't expect it so soon. I was prepared to have at least a few more months with you." He declares when he quiets down. "I truly want you happy, to grow and do things above taking care of me. But if you do that, I will lose you. It's something that every parent must face."

"I know dad. I completely understand, but it's not like you will never see me again, I'll be back after testing. And we both know that they won't actually pick me for commission, you said so last night."

"You've always been older than your years, here I am acting like I am an emotional teenager and you're being the adult. I Love you Bella."

"I love you too Dad. Why don't you sit down and go through the information, one step at a time." I suggest, he nods and weakly walks over to the table and sits in his normal spot.

After a few hours of reading the paper work over coffee, we finally make tails of both packets. The things about commission were almost the same as what our textbooks tell us, with the exception of dates and times of possible local appearance, so that the group has time to prepare the listed items.

There wasn't much information about my testing; they don't like to give you any information that would allow preparation. The packet contained instructions on what to bring with me and when and how I would travel. My testing would start in just ten days. I would travel to the capital and to the testing facility that The Forum has created.

I am certain that I won't be chosen for commission, but I am excited to start the next phase of life.

Whatever that may be.

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><p><strong>AN A few days earlier than I anticipated, despite having to pick through it a couple times.**

**Review Question: Would you be okay with a panel of intelligent people telling you what you would best be equipped to do?**


	4. Chapter 4

**Twilight is not mine, but I hold all claim to my wacky brain.**

**Enjoy**

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><p>Some of my classmates had traveled around the planet, but I had never left our home group. I had no other family to visit and not particular reason to ever leave. We studied in school that before Rebirth there had been an activity called 'sight-seeing'; that buildings were built in grandeur, to be appealing to the eye regardless of the materials or inefficiencies they had. Today they are built for practicality and efficiency, homes were almost all identical, using materials that were renewable, durable and re-usable. Everything built was cost and energy efficient and could be built or taken down quickly as needed.<p>

We only use what we need, and never want for anything more than given. Society provided us with all the required items to survive and grow, as long as we provided ourselves for Society.

Certainly that sounds crude, but when one considers what work life entails they quickly change their minds. Most jobs were daytime shifts which come with long relaxing lunches, quiet calm environments and plenty time for exercise. All things maintained to maximize productivity. Our excellent diet and metal health's also attribute to easy work. There are no attention deficit disorders, or work related stress; The Forum ensures that. What job we are chosen to do is not only what is best for society it is what is best for us.

Those shifts not during prime hours are often more difficult but significantly shorter in hours, to get the required amount of sleep without adjusting out natural rhythm with the sun. But The Forum also wouldn't assign such a job to a person who would find it difficult or stressful. That is their job, to pinpoint what task would be the easiest, most efficient way to spend our time; just another way to decrease aggression.

There is plenty time left over in the day for household duties, recreational activities and most importantly family time. Families are important to society, because what would life be without loved ones to hold, to enjoy frequently.

So as I sit on the boarding platform waiting for the next transport to the capital I am curious as to what The Forum will suggest for me. And I say suggest strongly, as they may tell us what would be best for us, but we may tell them something else. We are given a list of choices after testing; their top three job selections for us, family planning or basic group service. People rarely give up their first choices though, and the ones that do usually choose family planning. Basic group service was considered an elderly job, for those who wish to partake in small easy tasks when they can.

I hear the distinct whirring of the transports engines and look up to watch it land. The craft's vapor trail leading from high in the sky towards me, its flaps adjusting this way and that for a soft landing right in front of me. The transportation officer offers me a hand to help me stand and then balances me while I climb into the craft after a few people have disembarked. He then places my bag below my chair and wishes me a safe journey.

My one small bag contains only the items listed inside the packet that we had received just 10 days ago. I was allowed to take one change of clothes including undergarments, my preferred women's products if needed, and one photo. I chose a photograph of my father and I last summer. Everything else would be provided shortly after I have arrived. I hope that my father is faring well; the days leading up to today were increasingly gloomy for him. I fear that he will get lonely.

I buckle into my seat and place the headset onto my head that the flight advisor is holding out for me.

"Good day miss." He says cheerfully.

"Bella please sir." I suggest.

"Okay Miss Bella, we will be taking off shortly as soon as the fuel tanks have been topped off, have you flown before?"

"No sir, I have never left my group."

"How exciting! I love riding with first timers, are you afraid?" he asks.

"No sir, not afraid, perhaps just nervous."

"Headed to the testing facility I presume?"

"Yes sir."

"Everything will be fine, nothing to be nervous about; we've all gone through it." He reassures me. "I'm Quil, and I'll be back here with you to answer any questions or get you anything you need. I take care of this craft so I may get up and wonder around, but I'll tell you about it beforehand. Paul is our pilot and Jared is our navigator and I think…" he looks towards a panel of dials and gauges, "yep, we are ready to take off."

He presses a button on his headset and says a few words that I am unable to hear over the slow rumble of the main engine. Soon after speaking he turns back to me and smiles brightly as the blades begin to turn and quickly the air whips around the craft and the ground disappears beneath me. A tickling feeling starts deep in my stomach and makes me giggle and Quil smile even wider.

"You okay?" he asks me. I am unable to speak as I concentrate on the odd feeling that flying is giving me and just nod my head.

"It's a quick trip, only about 30 minutes." Quil says to me trying to strike up conversation.

"I thought I read it was around an hour to the capital." I state.

"Yes normally, but you get a special trip, this craft was built for service on the outland borders, faster stronger and more equipped to handle any situation."

I nod my head, curious as to why I was riding in a military craft. Perhaps other crafts were out for repairs or maintenance. It is no worry of mine though and I peer out the window at the ground below where I see lush forests for miles with flocks of birds flying over top and in the distance I see a winding river splitting the terrain like a snake. I am so grateful to be a part of Society where they fought to protect and restore the things I am seeing now. I studied the cruelties that we humans did to our planet before, killing off species of animals for sport, cutting down vast amounts of forests for greed.

But all too soon the forests dissipate and I am left to a view of the norm. First watchtowers that overshadow the perimeter fences then homes and finally the large buildings of The Forum; all painted white, the color of purity. We start descending rapidly giving my belly another tickle and I hold onto me seat tightly. I try to see the palace but we get between buildings and the craft adjusts slowly and comes to a easy landing on the platform and the blades slow to a stop and all that is left to be heard is the buzzing in my ears as the pilot has turned off the engine altogether.

I hand over my headset to Quil and another transportation officer is there to grab my bag and steady me as I step off the craft. Paul and Jared have come off the craft and now stand with Quil. The transportation officer turns and faces them directly as they stand in a neat line and bow their heads to us. I look up the officer in confusion.

"I haven't traveled Sir; I do not know what is customary to do." I say to him.

"Just acknowledge back Miss." And I do as he said and give the men my full concentration as I bow my head to them as they have done to me. Quil smiles his big grin as he had all flight, Jared seems mystified and Paul's sharp eyes peer at me with reverence but his smirk comforts me in an odd way. The officer clears his throat and holds his hand out to lead the way. I start walking away from the crew of the craft stealing a quick peak over my shoulder at the aberrant behavior of the kind men.

I am quickly led to a small white car where the door is being held open by a tall man dressed not unlike my flight crew in an all black military uniform. I move past him sitting in the car and squeak out a thank you on the way by. He quickly shuts the door and surveys they area before shutting the trunk the officer had put my small bag into. I was busy watching the man in military gear to realize that there was another one sitting in the driver's seat of the car. He is also looking around just as the first man did while he is getting into the car. And moments after my seat belt is fastened the car leaves the travel platform. Only then does the first man turn in his seat to address me.

"Hello Miss, I am Sam and the driver is Embry. We are going to take you directly to the testing facility and make sure you arrive safely." He says very seriously with a bit of humor behind his eyes.

"Okay." Is all I can make out, I hadn't put much thought into what would happen when I got here, but I certainly didn't foresee a need for a military escort.

"Am I in danger?" I ask after thinking about it for awhile. I thought travel in the capital would be similar to my home group, where we drove freely or walked to our location without worry.

"No Miss." Sam says acutely, undoubtedly cutting off any further questioning. I turn my attention off the odd arrangements of my travel to the capital city. Everything is quite similar to my home group with the exception of size. All the buildings here were larger, certainly to hold the higher population. We must be in The Forum district, because as far as my eye's can see all the buildings are white. The color reserved for the members and items of The Forum, same as this car, although not of the other patrons in the car with me.

The car stops shortly after in front of a large building with several wide steps leading down to the road. A lean woman dressed in the same black military uniform waits at the top before walking down the steps towards our car. Sam opens the car door for me again and the woman lends a hand to assist me out of the car which I graciously take. Perhaps they have been informed of my clumsiness, as it is the only reason that I can think as to why they are treating me as such.

"Welcome to the Capital Miss Swan." She greets me.

"Bella, please ma'am." I suggest again, I am still young and being named with such formality makes me feel unworthy and uncomfortable.

"Yes Miss Bella, would you like to come inside?" She asks kindly, a complete 180 from the men in the car with me. Embry has retrieved my bag out of the trunk and is walking up the stairs behind me and the woman, Sam soon follows but not before looking around the area with sharp eyes.

We enter the building with Embry holding the door for us and are led into a windowless room very close to the entrance where a table sits with several pieces of technology devices placed upon it.

"My name is Emily, have a seat Miss Bella and we will begin soon." She says to me before walking into an adjacent room where I hear her voice quietly talking with someone else. Sam and Embry walk into the room and shut the door behind them. They walk over to the part of the table where the devices are laid out and pick up a few things before walking over to me.

"Miss Swan, we are your security team while you are here and will be with you until we are no longer needed." Embry states to me looking into my eyes reassuringly. He said it to me as though I am supposed to be comforted but I am unsure and uneasy. I have no need that I am aware of for a security team, nor have I ever encountered one in my lifetime.

"I ask again, am I in danger." I ask tersely.

"No Miss Swan and we plan to keep it that way." His statement confuses me more. "May I have your wrist please?" I offer my left wrist to him and he slides a simple silver band on and tightens it so that it cannot slip off. "And now your opposite ankle please." Again I do as he says and he pulls my pants up only far enough to slip an identical band onto my ankle. Both times he was careful not to touch my skin, this was a comforting gesture. I haven't been accustomed to touch besides the occasional embrace from my father or my best friend Jacob.

Sam is next to approach me, he hands me a small palm sized piece with a single button on it. "This is a communicator; press this button to get a hold of us. If you need anything at all, or find yourself alone or lost, press it. The bands we put on you are locators, just as a precaution." He says sternly then immediately leaves the room.

Embry is next to leave after typing a few things at the computer and placing a similar item that I had been given into his pocket.

"Okay Miss Bella, we are all set up and can continue to the room you will be staying in during your time here. One of us will always be with you and if we aren't, press that button. Keep it on you at all times, no exceptions. Okay?"

"Yes Ma'am."

"Do you have any questions?" Emily asks me gently.

"Many, but I'm sure those answers will get explained to me soon."

"Yes Miss Bella, they probably will."

"I do have one though." I say quietly, she nods for me to continue. "Will Sam always be around?"

"Why do you ask?"

"He kind of scares me." She chuckles.

"He is my husband so I can assure you that he will loosen up, he takes his job very seriously. I blush a deep red with shame.

"Sorry, that was rude of me." She smiles sincerely at me before standing up.

Emily opens the door and gestures for me to follow her out. In the hall Embry and Sam are standing with their backs to the building's entrance and when I enter the hallway they bow their heads much the same that the flight crew did. After a minute of confusion, momentarily forgetting this has happened to me before, I bow my head repeating their gesture and Emily smiles gently and leads me away from them and deeper into the building.

This is nothing like I expected it to be.

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><p><strong>AN: Bella is so confused! Poor girl.**

**Who else wants a sexy Paul in black smirking at them? *Raises hand***


	5. Chapter 5

**Not beta'd, mistakes are my own.**

**Twilight is not mine. **

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><p>EPOV<p>

I sit impatiently in the palace dining room waiting for Emmett to return with news. As delegate he was meeting with The Forum to discuss the start of Commission. My parents have told me that this will be a longer process than before as all of the possible candidates for collection are of pre-testing age and will need to go through their adult testing just as I had before commission were to start. My legs bounce nervously the more time passes and my copper hair is wild with the numerous times that I have ran my hands through it. My mother peeks in on me from time to time but other than the occasionally warning to calm down she says nothing and seems humored by my state of agitation, evident by the affectionate smile adorning her face.

It is nearing evening when Emmett casually strolls in carrying a file folder as if nothing was out of sorts. Not much bothers Emmett, he is generally easygoing merry and nothing seems to get on his nerves. I however am quite nervous about this process and the responsibility placed on my shoulders. I hadn't thought I would rule; that the honor would be given to either of my older brothers. But ultimately I trust in The Forum and try to heed my father's words that everything will be just fine.

Emmett sits down with a mischievous smile laying the folder in front of him on the table and just stares at me with that goofy smile he is always carrying, and says not a single word.

"Well?" I ask impatiently.

"Brother, calm down man. This is going to be fun." He says rubbing his hands together.

"Why can't you be serious at times like these?" I ask.

"Why can't you loosen up?" he laughs.

"Can we just sit and do this please?" I beg him impatiently.

He nods before starting to pull a series of smaller folders out of the large holder. "So, there are a lot of things that our parents kept from us. I'm completely overwhelmed by what I learned today. They went over everything, and I mean every single part of the process. I've never been to one of The Forums conclaves before and I honestly don't want to do it again. It's intense and so efficient I could hardly keep up with what was happening." He rambles on, talking adamantly with his hands. "They handed me a tablet, just like the ones they use and it had an outline of the entire process on it, and they went through every part. First it was read aloud and then voted to change and then if change was needed there was five minutes that each members were allowed to submit changes. Then the computers took what was most commonly changed and then it was read aloud again before being voted on again. It went on like this until the bottom but it was so fast it was ridiculous. They had to change quite a lot of the procedures to account for your age and a few other things. And I was told that they will do the same thing when it's my turn for commission and Jaspers too." He finishes practically out of breath.

I sat listening to him intently, fascinated about the procedures of The Forum. As a royal member and now Prince First Select I wasn't allowed membership into The Forum, but I was curious all the same. The royal family was created as a bridge between the people and The Forum; a voice for the people and overseer of The Forum. As King my father hadn't had to veto many things that came from The Forum, but after their induction of membership, members of The Forum spent most of their time away from Society itself, where their large busy brains kept busy with official work and constant stimulation. So some of the rulings to come out were seen as to disconnected from today's society and were requested to be reworked after more studies were done.

"Tell me everything." I said excited.

"Okay okay." My brother chuckles at my eagerness. "So since you are the youngest they are having to pull a larger pool of candidates than ever before."

"Why?"

"Because all of the prospective Prime candidates are all pre-testing." He says with wonder.

"All of them?" That's unheard of, but so is starting commission at 18 years of age. I suppose I should thank Jasper for that, or rather his high strategically coded brain.

"Yup, all of them. So they are being sent to the testing facility immediately, some already have word and have started arriving."

"Good" I say letting a breath that I hadn't know I had been holding. "What else?"

"They have shown me the list of the hundred that they have sent for early testing and how much they match up with you."

"And by match you mean they gave you actual percentages?"

"Yes."

"And... Stop making me drag information out of you, can't you see I'm nervous about this." I say exasperated.

"What are you nervous about? You get a choice after all." He says to me.

"What do you mean I get a choice? The Forum will tell me who my bride shall be." I say frustrated, surely he understands how it works.

"See, this is one of the things that our parents hid from us. Dad got to choose who he married. Yes, The Forum has a large deal to do with it, but he got to meet the collection at a point in the process and he got to choose."

"Was mom The Forums pick, or did Dad choose her despite not being the best?"

"She was their pick, but Dad chose her before he knew that. But before you go thinking crazy things, The Forum has always chosen the same candidate as the prince slash princess has picked. So trust them, they know what they are doing and they are bloody good at it too." He said with finality. He was my big brother and I trusted him just as much as I trusted The Forum, so I nodded my head in agreement.

"Okay what else can you tell me?" I ask much more relaxed than I had previously been.

"Better, I can show you." He says while pulling a large stack of cards out of the folder. "I have pictures of each girl, but don't get too attached, some aren't very good picks for you. This is just a pre-testing selection, and puberty changes a lot in our bodies and minds and some of these may not be suitable at all after testing. The collection will probably be no more than ten candidates." He hands me the picture cards and I start to fold through them.

"They are all very beautiful."

"This whole world is beautiful now. We haven't seen an ugly woman since our history books." He says jokingly. His statement is true of course; naturally good genes came with good looks now. But I find that I am attracted to some of these girls more than others. I keep flipping through until I get hung up on a picture of a girl near the end of the stack.

She has brown hair neatly curled that is pulled to one side and flows to the middle of her chest. Her brown eyes are kind and she has a look of innocence upon her. She is seated in a chair like all the other girls in the pictures, wearing modest clothing and sitting perfectly, a slight blush on her cheeks. I wonder if her skin heats up where that beautiful blush lies.

Emmett takes notice of my expression after a moment when I stop flipping through the cards and he takes the picture card from my hands flips it over and then hands it back. Curious I flip it over and see a number on the back and look back to see Emmett looking down a list of information with several different columns of numbers on it.

"Interesting." He says mysteriously.

"What's interesting?" I will forever have to pull information from him it seems.

"Pre-test she is your best match." He says looking straight at me, wanting to judge my reaction.

"Good, I hope she stays that way. Do you know her name?" I ask hopeful.

"No." He says sadly. "They remain nameless until the part of commission that you are allowed to meet them." I nod my head in acknowledgment but an unable to tear my eyes away from mystery girl number 172 with the eyes that melt my heart.

"We will talk more very soon brother, but for now I would like to rest if that is okay with you." I nod my head at him while he takes all the other cards from me but generously lets me keep the one I can't put down.

"Not yet Emmett." I hear my father speak from the door way and we both turn our heads to see him and the head of our security Harry walking in to the dining area with several member of The Forum dressed in their all white uniforms.

"What's wrong?" I ask immediately on defense.

My father nods to Harry as everyone takes a seat around the table. "A perimeter team found this late last night."

He hands me a piece of paper inside a clear plastic bag, I turn it over to see writing scribbled on it and begin to read. It takes me a minute to understand what I am seeing, the script terrible and the paper old and faded. The ink on it looks fairly fresh but the words are hard to read and awfully misspelled. I know immediately that this wasn't found on our perimeter, but had to be found near the outland borders.

"What do you know of the outland borders Prince Edward?" Harry asks before I had a chance to read the note.

"Only what I've learned in studies. That there were some people that didn't want to participate in Society in the beginning and some who even left over time. Those people now occupy what we call the outland borders. They do not have the advantages of our genetic qualities nor the materials or comforts as we provide each other. And obviously their education is lacking." I say pointing to the letter.

"That's right. They are aggressive, vain, selfish, and cruel and wish to see us destroyed." I furrow my brows in worry, I never thought of it actively, but I think I always knew what was out there and why border positions were so dangerous. So I look down to the note again and read it slowly and carefully, trying to make sense of the unintelligent writing.

_**Yer bloomin flour will die befor her peke**_

_**Count yer days yung princ**_

"Your blooming flower will die before her peak. Count your day's young prince. Did I read that right?" Harry nods his head. "I don't understand what it means."

"They call The Prime a blooming flower." Harry tells me slowly.

"Is this a threat on my mother?" I ask confused.

"No son." My father says and I understand immediately that my future bride is possibly in danger. I can't seem to voice an opinion as my mind runs with thoughts of harm coming to any of the girls. The members of The Forum have been quiet but during the moment of silence one of them directs his body towards Emmett.

"Prince Emmett, you received all the commission information from the conclave today?"

"Yes sir." Emmett presses the information forward but the man gestures for him to keep it.

"How many in pre-selection?"

"One hundred sir."

"Well we certainly can't put security on them all. Perhaps we need to have this conversation after testing." He says.

"NO." I speak loudly and clearly. I look to Emmett hopefully to convey the silent message that they cannot go unprotected, and hoping that the fellow men in the room can forgive my temporary outburst.

He seems to understand and suggests an alternative. "What if we had protection for the top five of the best matches?" He knows it would be wrong to uncover my obvious favoritism for number 172. We both know that The Forum may find her unworthy and be expelled from Commission before I would even get to see her. His new suggestion earns a nod to Emmett of acceptance and gratitude from me.

"That's a reasonable request." Harry says to The Forum members who then look preoccupied in thought for a few moments before nodding at one another.

"So be it, I trust you can arrange that Harry?"

"Yes, I can coordinate information with The Forum and set up appropriate security." He says quickly and precisely. I can see that Harry had all but figured out what to do in his head. I say a silent thank you to The Forum conclave that appointed him to our security service. I felt safe and protected in his care and feel ultimately calmer with protection coming to my best matches under his guidance.

My father seems pleased and quickly stands to leave. Custom dictates our next movements as we all stand and bow our heads to our leader. Of course we didn't acknowledge him like this when it was just our family together, but were more that expected to when in the presence of anyone else.

The Forum members quickly leave after retrieving the paper from my hands with Harry trailing behind. He almost gets through the doorway before turning his head and giving me a proud smile. Harry had been close to our family as deemed his position but I had to come to think of him as a trusted elder that I could rely on, and often found myself in conversation with the older man.

"Don't worry too much Edward. Harry is a good man and will protect the girls." Emmett comforts me, putting a hand on my shoulder in reassurance.

"Make sure of it?" I asked Emmett. He nods his head before gathering the folder and walking out of the room. I sit suddenly exhausted and rid my mind of negative thoughts, not letting them fester and fill it with an image of a lovely girl with chocolate eyes.

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><p><strong>AN: So I was halfway through a Bella chapter when Edward kept screaming at me to write his words down. So we get out first look at Edward this time around. And good news is I'm already half done with the next chapter.**

**Reviews are like sour cream, can never have enough! I love to hear from you guys and respond to almost all of my reviews so feel free to ask questions or tell me what you think is going to happen.**

Fic Rec: Claim by Deonne There is a sequel to this story as well. Its all things dirty, Bella, the wolves and whips!


	6. Chapter 6

**Not Beta'd, mistakes are my own.**

**I do not own twilight. But I like salty and sweet peanut granola bars.**

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><p>BPOV<p>

Emily led me down the warmly lit all white hallway passing by doors every ten feet until we reached the end where a lift was left open. She gestured me to step first and she quickly followed after me and pressed a few buttons on a panel on one of the walls. I had never been in a building large enough to need a lift, but I had heard from the kids at school about them.

"We will go pretty quickly, hold on Miss Bella." Emily turned to me and said with a kind smile. I did what she said and soon after the doors had closed that tickling feeling that I felt while flying was back. Same as before I let small giggles escape me and Emily does the same. The air is light as we laugh and smile, making me relax after traveling.

All too soon we were stepping out and walking down another all white hallway, the doors along the wall spread further apart than the main floor. Emily skipped ahead of me and opened a door with then number 172 hung in light blue lettering with gold edging. I quickly stepped inside without looking into the room and turned to wait for Emily. She closed the door after entering and reached in her pocket and pulled out a similar communicator like I had been given.

"Miss Bella has arrived in her room Embry." Only at hearing her declare this my room did I turn and look around. There was a white sitting room filled with plush looking grey chairs and tables. Vases sat on the end tables filled with white flowers and fresh green accents. I look to my left and see a hallway with three doors, all closed in fairly close proximity. On my right is an open kitchen area with a four chaired table and another door far on the wall.

It's much more spacious than I had heard from others recollections of their times at the testing facility. The three doors in the hall must be other rooms for more testers to occupy. I also thought a kitchen would be unnecessary because I was told there was a common cafeteria where everyone ate together.

With confusion written all over my face Emily speaks up, "Okay Miss Bella, let's get you settled in." She leads me down the hallway to the door on the left. "This will be your room," she says while opening the door and then points to the door at the end of the hall, "that is the bathroom and the room across from yours is where one of us will be staying."

"One of you, the security team?" I say surprised. "The boys too?" Only in a family sitting did males and females stay in close proximity to preserve our modesty. It wasn't until after marriage that we were permitted to be that close.

"Oh of course not, sorry I didn't clarify. There is another girl on the team Kim, when I'm not here, she will be. Kim or I will be with you at all times, and the guys will be watching too."

My brows furrow and I bite my lip before nodding at Emily even though I do not understand; I don't know what to ask. They have reassured me that I am not in danger, yet the more they tell me that, the more I worry that I am.

I take my bag into the room designated mine and pull out the photograph of my father and sit on the bed holding it in my hands. I'm hoping that his face can give me a little reassurance, and I can hear his voice telling me to trust in The Forum, and it does make me feel better. We have been ingrained since birth to trust in the things we know and not let our minds carry away with silly notions. We have no reason not to trust.

Emily leans in the doorway and asks, "Are you okay Miss Bella?"

"Yes ma'am, confused is all. I wasn't expecting any of this."

"No, you wouldn't be would you. The Forum has deemed you to be very important, that is why we are here to protect you." She says trying to clear my confusion, but it doesn't work.

"From what?" I ask her, stumped at what I could need protection from. I've never seen a sign of aggression from anyone. Yes I've met some people who are cold, but not aggressive, and I've never seen or heard of anyone that has caused anyone harm in my lifetime.

"That is a story for another time Miss Bella." She evades and walks over to a wall with built in drawers and opens a few of them. "You'll find all the clothes you should need in here or the closet, the bathroom is stocked with supplies and you may store your bag into the closet. Take time to get your bearings and figure out where everything is then come out into the sitting area and you can meet Kim."

She practically runs out of the room before I am able to ask any more questions. I will have to watch what I say here and trust that they will tell me what I need to know. I don't want my curiosity to reflect on my testing here.

I take time to look through the things in my room. The drawers are filled with plain white undergarments and sleepwear. The sleepwear consists of long pants made of a soft material and a simple t-shirt, all my size of course. In another drawer I find running shorts and pants. I walk to the closet and see uniforms hung up and take one down. The pants are made of a light material that is loose fitting probably made for ease of movement for the physical aspect of testing. A skin tight undershirt is covered by a long sleeved jacket with an overlapping front panel and buttons that fasten on one side.

There are three pairs of shoes at the bottom of the closet; a simple pair of slippers that goes with the hung up uniform, a pair of running shoes and then a dress shoe with a modest heel. I understand the slippers and the running shoes, but am baffled as to why I would need the dress shoe as I see no other dress clothing.

My room has a twin bed with one pillow and a blanket neatly folded at the bottom and a small desk with a pull out chair. No windows or decorations, all things I would expect at the testing facility unlike the rest of this _apartment_ that I am staying in. I'm not even sure what I should call it.

I wander to the bathroom next and see more things that I expect and comfort me, a small room with a shower, sink and a toilet. The cabinet has towels and product to wash with; I quickly stash my feminine products under the sink and shut the light off to leave.

When I get to the sitting area I see Emily with her long raven colored hair and dark tanned skin sitting with another woman, looking much the same.

"Miss Bella, this is Kim." I walk to her and shake her hand lightly then sit down on the chair Emily gestured to. I keep quiet remembering that it seems my questions are unwanted and I look to my lap. I sit properly like I've been taught; back straight, legs together and crossed at the ankle, hands neatly folded in my lap. My eyes are down, where they feel most comfortable. I have no authority here and it seems disrespectful to peer about when I have no business too.

"Miss Bella, it's nice to meet you." Kim says warmly before continuing. "I think Emily already told you that either she or I will be with you at all times while you are here. We aren't allowed into your testing sessions but will be right outside the door."

"Yes ma'am." I respond compliantly. My mind races with questions as they go over security procedures to me for the rest of the afternoon but I keep quiet. I'm confused and I'm scared but I keep quiet. They keep telling me not to worry and that I'm not in danger, yet everything that has happened so far makes my head scream at me to believe otherwise.

I was excited to start testing and begin the next phase of my life but now I'm unsure. I'm troubled that _this_ may be a test. That they have been watching me from the beginning to see how I can stand up in unfamiliar situations and I'm failing miserably.

The room is quiet for some time before I look up and realize that I hadn't heard what they said to me. They look at me encouragingly as a blush glides across my skin in embarrassment.

More failure.

"I'm sorry I got lost in my thoughts." I admit abashed. I expect a different emotion from them then they give me. Their faces are warm with gentle smiles, not disappointed or offended. Emily notices my distress and puts a comforting hand on my leg and gently squeezes it.

"That's okay Miss Bella, it's been a long interesting day for you I'm sure. Why don't you get some rest and you will meet your advisor in the morning." She tells me kindly.

"Yes ma'am." They stand so I take that as my leave and walk to my room and shut the door quietly. My bed is a comforting sight and when I sit on it the emotions of the day explode from me. Silent tears streak down my cheeks as I refuse to let others know how weak I am being.

I sit up straighter and take deep breaths giving myself a mental pep talk. I get my sleepwear on and busy myself with putting my clothes into the laundry shoot and unfolding the blanket and resting it on top of the comforter needing more warmth tonight.

Sleep doesn't come easily as I mentally berate myself for my behavior and my rampant thoughts today. I must try harder tomorrow.

*~MoH~*

The alarm on the electronic panel in my room startles me awake. I grab a change of clothes and scurry to the bathroom to get ready. The shower is already programmed with my preferred settings and turns on automatically when I step in. I block out all thoughts and let the water wet my hair and get ready to wash it quickly. The water comforts me and I would probably enjoy standing here longer, but I don't want to waste the water.

Water is a precious resource to our Society. It had taken centuries to detoxify the water after Rebirth, it was full of toxic chemicals and carcinogens. There were once factories that had dumped countless amounts of sludge into our water ways. They didn't bother to think of the long lasting effects. The water that housed fish that we ate, the water that hydrated the animals that we ate, the water that grew the plants to nourish our bodies was nothing but poison.

Even after all our work and advancements in water purifying there is still risk in some items we eat. High levels of mercury are still in a lot of sea creatures and we have to monitor the amounts that we eat carefully. We often eat fresh water fish out of lakes that have been restored. The fisheries are controlled as to not offset the balance of nature; never again will humans be responsible for the extinction of any species on our planet.

Our footprint is small; we recycle and reuse practically everything. There hasn't been a need to cut down trees for paper in centuries. Recycled paper now mostly consists of other plant fibers that are easily renewable. Its consider a byproduct of our everyday life, the leaves that fall from the trees, the left over stalks of a vegetable plant, even the grass clippings from our homes are turned into paper.

I finish quickly and get dressed into an official uniform including the simple slippers. I will meet my advisor today, something that I was told beforehand would happen. We will go over the rest of my stay here at the testing facility and will have many counseling sessions while I am here. I brush and floss my teeth, dry my hair and put it into a tight bun on my head and put my sleepwear into the laundry shoot to be washed and returned. At home I do my own laundry but here there is a centralized laundry station where the process is automated.

When I enter the living area of the apartment Emily is sitting on the chair with a cup of coffee in her hands reading over a paper. I hear a noise and turn to see Embry cooking at the stove. I am extremely uncomfortable with him here, it's not customary. I'm used to group settings with supervision when not with my father. Embry turns and offers me a warm smile before greeting me a good morning.

"Good morning sir." I say strained.

"You can just call me Embry." I nod my head but the rest of my body is rigid with concern. "You are not comfortable with me here are you?" He asks noticing my distress.

"Yes sir. I'm sorry." I say feeling the need to apologize for the aversion.

"No need to be worried Miss Bella, Embry is a kind man. And I won't leave you alone with any of the men." Emily speaks up with a reassuring smile.

"I think I am just uncomfortable that you know where I sleep." I say honestly.

"I would never enter your room, not even with permission." He convinces me with a smile.

"Okay sir… Embry" I try out his name after a gentle encouraging look. After a moment I realize that it's ridiculous to be scared of the people that are there to protect me. My shoulders relax and I walk over to the small table in the kitchen area. I take a seat and curiously peek over to see what Embry is cooking.

"Are you hungry Miss Bella?" Embry asks me.

"I can cook for myself I wouldn't want to bother you."

"Nonsense, is an omelet okay? He asks and I start to protest but Emily speaks up.

"You should take him up on his offer Miss Bella he is the best cook on our team."

"Okay" I agree and watch him with fascination at how efficient he is. He chops up the vegetables and cracks eggs and in a matter of minutes I have a perfect looking omelet in front of me. I take a tentative first bite and realize that Emily wasn't lying, this is delicious.

Emily sits next to me with a piece of paper. "Okay your advisor will be here in about 15 minutes and will go over some things with you. Then you start testing this afternoon."

"That sounds good." I reply warmly. I would rather just get all this over with. I'm surprised that I do not feel nervous about the actual testing, unlike all the other things going on. I finish my omelet and get comfortable in the sitting area and the 15 minutes have flown and Embry is escorting my advisor in.

He is a tall man with dark hair, pale skin and a sharp nose. "Hello Miss Bella, I'm Eleazar." He says strongly and reaches out his hand

I stand and shake his hand firmly suddenly feeling confident about the whole process. "It's very nice to meet you Eleazar, I'm glad you are here."

"You seem very excited." He says looking at me questioningly.

"I am very excited to get my testing out of the way. I've been curious as to what I will do for Society for a long time now."

"As have The Forum, we have been watching you for sometime Miss Bella." I immediately take offense to this thinking that I was being judged about my home life.

"I understand that my circumstances are not normal, but I have studied hard and I believe I can be great for society." I say defensively.

"No no my child, you misunderstood me. We have been watching you because we know you will be great for society." He says adamantly.

"I don't understand." Emily comes to sit next to me, and places a warm hand at me. She smiles at me lively when I look to her in confusion.

"The Forum has been patiently waiting for you to come of age. You have several desired qualities that are needed for some very special jobs."

"Really?" I ask doubtful.

Eleazar chuckles and then nods his head at me. He smiles the entire time it takes him to retrieve all the items out of his bag that he brought.

"Okay, let's start shall we. I am here to advise you, you can ask questions but only after sessions. We cannot give you any preparations otherwise our results would be falsified. I will be able to see what your so called _gift_ is by the results of your sessions. By the end we will know where to place you, although you may not find out right away. There is a process to this, and it takes time."

"I understand sir." I say excitedly. Even though I am testing early it seems that I have waited a very long time to get to this point. We continued to go through his paperwork for about an hour all the while the stress from yesterday falls off me and motivation and elation replaces it. Thankfully no one mentions the reason for early testing, the ridiculous notion that I would be part of commission. He left saying he would see me later after my first session.

"See Miss Bella, that wasn't so bad." Emily says to me.

"I wasn't worried about this." I say confidently. Embry who stayed for the meeting with me laughs at my remark ardently. I think I can come to like Embry. He has a way of brightening the room that I didn't see before.

"I wasn't worried about this at all."

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><p><strong>AN We will be getting on with testing in the next chapter, finally. I thought we were never going to get here :P and I'm the one writing the story, can't imagine what yall felt.**

**Question of the day. Conserve water or take long showers/baths?**

**Reviews are like words. My story would suck if it only had one. I respond to the reviews so ask some questions!**


	7. Chapter 7

**Not Beta'd, all mistakes are my own.**

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><p>BPOV<p>

The next morning I am not allowed to eat breakfast and sit quietly waiting for my first session to begin. Eleazar retrieves me from the apartment and takes me to the lift and I'm pretty sure that we go down but there is no way to tell short of asking, and I would rather not do that. I see another white hallway when the doors open after a short ride, Emily is with us in the lift and I can see Sam on the other side of the hall. Other than my security team and Eleazar I haven't seen anyone; the halls are unnaturally quiet to me. It seems like they should be filled with busy people and eager teenagers getting tested. But there is no one.

Eleazar opens the first door in the hall for me and I walk into a large high ceilinged room with bright lights. There is an examination table in the center and a privacy screen in the back corner of the room. One the wall a display of medical equipment is hanging; there are small pieces with lenses sitting on bases and large round devices on adjustable arms connected to the walls. I look up to the lights and see that the whole room is ambient lit with an array of sharp lights pointed towards the table. The table itself is laid flat but the separate cushions can allow it to be adjusted many different ways. The shiny black material covering the table is a blunt contrast to the all-white room. Large white cabinets adorn the right side of the room with drawers that are nicely closed and only have small printed symbols on them, of which I don't recognize.

I knew that there would be a medical examination at some point, but I still seem rather surprised by the intimidating room. Emily and Eleazar follow me into the room and walk over to a row of chairs on the far side of the room. They are standard metal chairs for convenience not comfort. The cold on my back from the chair startles me when I sit down between Emily and Eleazar.

"As you can guess you will have a medical session first. This is going to be far more in depth than your yearly medical exam that you have experienced in the past." Eleazar informs me.

"What will be different?" I ask, the words coming out of my mouth before I have time to think better.

Eleazar gives me a furrowed look in disappointment and says "The doctor will go over that with you."

I nod my head and purse my lips and try to keep the curious questions that are swirling in my head to myself. _They will tell you what you need to know._

The door opening alerts me and I jump in my seat, Emily lays a calming hand on top of my own hands that are folded in my lap. Two nurses walk in wearing scrubs that all medical professionals do, in white of course and a doctor follows. He is wearing scrubs as well but also has a long lab coat on, they are not white however. They are the color of an older book's pages that I have in my room at home. One would call it white, but against the stark white of The Forum it is ivory. He is a doctor entrusted with the care of the royal family.

I don't have time to question why a royal doctor is here as the doctor walks straight to me with a friendly smile and extends his hand to me. "I'm Dr. Gerandy, you must be Miss Swan."

"Yes sir." I say as we shake hands. He is an older gentlemen with salt and pepper hair, broad shoulders and vivid hazel eyes.

"Good good. I'll be doing your full testing, meaning I will be with you the whole time, no doctor switching." I nod my head, feeling slightly better that I won't have to subject myself to several different doctors. "We are going to try to make this as comfortable as possible, but there are just some things that we can't avoid. Do you understand?"

"Yes sir." I say with a shaky voice.

"Okay first thing we need you to undress behind the curtain and put on the gown that is back there on the table." He points to the privacy curtain as I stand and start to walk over. "Eleazar its time for you to leave, and I've been told that her security detail is to stay."

"Yes Dr. Gerandy, this is Emily. She and her associate Kim have been charged with her care and they are not to leave her sight." Eleazar says kindly and looks to me and gives me an encouraging smile before walking out of the room. My face is emotionless but my heart is pounding, although slightly relieved that Emily gets to stay in the room with me. She is still a stranger, but more familiar every passing minute; I'm beginning to trust her as a friend and that she has my best interest at heart.

Medical exams at my home group were all done in my normal clothes; I had been a healthy child and there had been no need for to me to change clothes in the past. I take a deep breath and pull confidence from deep within me and start undressing behind the privacy screen. The gown that they have me put on is extremely unusual to me. At first glance it looks similar to a sleeping gown but looking closer there are seams down the sides and in the front and back. The gown is built in small pieces and when I pull at one of the seams it gives way like Velcro without the sound, and it sticks back together like a magnet but I feel nothing hard within the fabric. I've never seen this type of fabric before. It's soft and looks absorbent, and of course all white. I'm starting to get tired of white.

I pull the gown over my head and neatly fold my clothes and put them on the table that the gown had previously laid. I leave my slippers on the floor by the table and walk out. The nurses are busy pulling supplies and equipment out of the cabinets. The doctor pats the exam table in the center and I crawl up on it, careful not to stretch the gown so it doesn't burst open and reveal me. I lay my arms down at my sides stiff as a board like the rest of my body. The lights above me are thankfully not pointing at my head and seem dimmed at the angle that I am laying. My head turns towards the chairs that I had just gotten out of and I see that Emily is reading a book. She notices me turning my head and her eyes meet mine.

She puts the book down and walks over to me and squats next to the table so that we are face to face. "Do not be afraid Miss Bella. Dr. Gerandy will take good care of you. You look so scared, relax your face." And she rubs the wrinkles out that I didn't even know had formed on my face. Her warm hands bring me comfort and my breathing slows. I close my eyes and feel Emily walk away and hear her pick up her book again. My eyes open and she is still looking towards me and I give her an appreciative smile. She gleams at me and looks down to her book again.

"Okay Miss Swan we are going to start with a scan. It will give us a general idea of what's going on in your body and tell us if we need to look at something specific." He tells me as he moves one of the large machines on an adjustable arm. It is a white sphere about the size of a large beach ball with a small panel of buttons on one side. He moves it over my head and I see a little green light when it is directly above my eyes but it disappears again when he moves it higher. He presses some buttons and I hear a few clicks, then he is moving it down to my feet and does the same thing.

"Alright just hold still and breathe evenly." He says and the machine begins to move slowly rocking back and forth as if it is being pivoted by the central line of my body. It rocks back and forth and I can see that it is slowly moving towards my head with each pass. "Look straight up now Miss Swan and close your eyes." I hear the clicks that the scanner is making and can tell it is almost done when the sounds get above my head.

"All done." Dr. Gerandy says and I open my eyes, the scanner already out of the way and back up against the wall. A large viewing screen rolls down from the ceiling by the wall that my feet are pointing towards. The clear viewing screen blinks on and soon an image appears within it. It is an outline of my body and my anatomy. Dr. Gerandy stands in front of the screen and presses a button on it and I see my heart start to beat on the screen. He presses something else and the image fades and leaves only my veins and arteries visable. I can see the blood pumping through my body and entering my lungs. It changes again to a close up view of my brain, little sparks dance across it as my neurons fire.

He changes it back to the full image and it goes blank for a moment. Behind it several screens drop down and form a thick group of the clear screens back-to-back and the image of my body appears again. Dr. Gerandy uses controls on a panel and the image starts to roll and adjust, giving him a 3d model of my body and its function. I've become fascinated by the screens and have propped myself up on my elbows to see the image better. He nods to the nurses and they roll a table with equipment over to me as Dr. Gerandy continues studying the scan.

I lay back down and one of the nurses tells me to hold my arm out straight. After applying a band to my upper arm she picks up a needle and presses it into the crook of my elbow, I feel a slight pinch but the pain is not that bad. She pulls the needle out and leaves a flexible tube in my arm and tapes it down. She attaches another tube to the one in my arm and then connects that to a cartridge. The cartridge is made of clear plastic and has several chambers in it and when she releases a clip on the tubing my blood begins to flow, filling each chamber up until full. It takes only a matter of minutes before it is all full and she disconnects the tube and leaves the one in my arm alone after capping the end.

She takes the cartridge over to a machine that has been pulled out of the cabinets and inserts the cartridge. The blood begins to drain out of the chambers one at a time. Each time the blood leaves a chamber the machine whirs to life for a few minutes and the results pop up on the viewing screen for Dr. Gerandy to observe before repeating the process with each chamber.

"You are very healthy Miss Swan, you take care of yourself." Dr. Gerandy observes.

"Yes sir." I say proudly, because I do take care of my body. I cherish it as much as I cherish the planet that I live on.

"Good. You eat the recommended diet and exercise too?" He asks.

"Yes sir, I run three times a week." I respond.

"It shows, you have excellent heart and muscle tone. Your lungs are expanding properly and oxygenating perfectly." He says to me, back still turned looking that the blood results and the scan some more.

A few silent minutes pass and he brings one of the chairs close to the table and sits down close to my head. The table begins to move into a reclined chair position making me more comfortable then lying flat on my back.

"Okay so you have a few things to decide." I nod and he continues. "We will need to do a hymen anatomigraph, we call it H.A.G. or hag. That is unless your hymen is broken then we will proceed with a full gynecological exam."

"I'm sorry I don't know what that is." I say referring to the HAG.

"You have had this done at birth and then at age five. It's not common that you do remember it happening. It is just like the full scan, except that we need you to be in a certain position. We will compare it to your other results and see if your hymen has changed or been broken. But if you know it is broken we will do a full exam. Do you know if your hymen is broken?" He asks nonchalantly, like its just another standard question.

I have to rein myself in and not take offense of his attitude and remember that he is a professional and is not judging me. "It is not broken sir." I say a bit forced, I'm very protective of my modesty and although it is accepted in our community to have premarital sexual encounters I hold onto my virginity like it's a prize to be taken by someone who has yet to win the contest.

"It's okay to be defensive about this." Dr. Gerandy tells me at my obvious discomfort. "We want to keep it unchanged so we won't be doing any physical examination, which is why we do the hag. We will have you lay down with your feet in stirrups legs spread apart and uncovered. The scan will only take a few moments and then you can cover up again."

I swallow thickly at knowing I will have to bare my body to strangers. It's not something that I thought I would have to do until after marriage and even then I haven't thought about it much.

"We will be putting you asleep to do other tests that require you to be uncovered in the same region although the position isn't required." I cringe know exactly what he is referring to.

"Why will I be put to sleep?" I ask.

"We need to take more specific pictures of your intestinal track, and in order to do that we will need to inject different fluids that may cause pain. Do you want me to go into more detail?" He asks honestly.

"No sir, I understand. What decisions do I need to make?"

"Do you want us to the do the HAG scan, while you are asleep?"

I take a minute to think about this and Dr. Gerandy generously gives it to me. I wouldn't have to deal with the embarrassment and the venerable feeling. But I wouldn't know for sure what they actually did. I truly do not think they would do anything they weren't supposed to, but I know the doubt will be in my mind regardless. I look towards Emily and she is awaiting my answer too, her book down on the chair beside her.

"I'll be here the whole time Miss Bella." She says confirming what I already know.

"Okay, then yes please do the scan while I'm asleep." I say confidently and before I can ask any more questions the nurse immediately comes and injects a white liquid into the tube in my arm and my eyes become heavy and close.

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><p><strong>AN: So close to 100 reviews! Can we get it there? **

**I didn't want to go into to much detail about the procedures she is going to go through, you just need to know that they happened. The HAG scan is not real, atleast I don't think it is. I needed to show that in their back to basics world of conservation there is prominent technology being used, just not on a daily basis. And I needed to show that old world values like virginity are still in place and important to some, not so much to others. It will come into play later in the story.**

**Sorry this was just a few days late, I've been sick. Everytime that I went to write when I was sick, Bella became sick and started bitching about feeling like shit LOL. So I put writing on hold during that. I can't wait for winter to be over and I can put all this sickness behind.**

**Question of the Day: Regardless of the current status of your virginity, would you save it for Prince Edward in this utopian world?**


	8. Chapter 8

**Not Beta'd, all mistakes are my own.**

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><p>Emily POV<p>

As soon as Bella gave her consent and had been given the milky injection I felt instantly uneasy. An alarm on the monitors sounded and Dr. Gerandy whips his head around to the flashing lights. I can see his head moving rapidly back and forth between the different readings. He begins rapidly shouting orders to the nurses as I jumped up in alarm. Unsure what was going on I run to the table and look down at Bella, all the life had drained from her already alabaster skin, turning her color akin to death. The nurses were working quickly injecting medicines, applying electrodes to her body and drawing blood from a new sight below her collarbone.

"Doctor, what's wrong?" I ask harshly, impatient.

"I don't know, she is having a reaction to the anesthetic. I've called for additional help and I am giving her medicines to counteract the effects." He says hurried just before another alarm went off and I was pushed out of the way. The nurses are rolling a machine over to the head of the table, Dr. Gerandy is opening her mouth and inserting a round plastic piece and after he lets go I see that it's to hold her mouth open.

I retrieve the communicator out of my pocket and quickly press the buttons and I hear Sam answer with a gruff "Yes?"

"We have an emergency, additional staff has been called." I try to remain calm when speaking to our security leader, but the wife in me has me panicked and desperate to seek my husband for comfort. He can hear the panic in my voice and I get no response other than the quiet click of disconnection.

I take a deep breath to center myself when the door bursts open and my husband is leading in more medical staff. He quickly appraises the busy room, lingering on Bella's prone form before making contact directly with my eyes. His eyes are kind and caring, giving me the assurance I need to focus and then he is out the door again.

The door is wide open and Embry is next through it, hand to his ear as he rapidly talks into his communicator. He is calling for additional security and for the building to be locked down. Both of our eyes are on Bella, watching as a machine efficiently inserts a tube into Bella's throat. The machine retracts with the rising of her chest, tube affixed to her cheek with a piece of tape. Dr. Gerandy turns his head to the monitors while his hand is on her throat and a stethoscope in his ears. The alarms quiet down one by one as silence takes over the room. Everyone is watching monitors or watching Bella and waiting on answers.

I hear a flurry of heavy footsteps in the hall and Harry Clearwater turns to enter the room. Harry is head of Royal security, the person we all answer too. I become slightly more nervous and immensely relieved that he is here, but I am not expecting who enters behind him.

King Carlisle swiftly walks into the room followed by three other royal security detail. "Dr. Gerandy," he greets, a worried expression covering his features, "tell me what's going on." He speaks very evenly and calmly as he reads the monitors.

"She is having a reaction to the anesthetic." Dr. Gerandy says and Carlisle turns his body to look at the royal doctor in astonishment. "We regained cardiac function with intravenous stimulants before we had to assist with breathing." He says quickly.

"We haven't had a reaction to anesthetic in more than 300 years." Carlisle gasps. He looks to Harry conveying a silent message. He understood whatever message the King was trying to convey and is soon on his communicator quietly speaking. "Have you given the reversal drug?"

"Yes, as soon as her heart rate dropped." Dr. Gerandy says and soon he and the King are standing at the monitors going over all the information, quietly whispering, pointing at various readings. King Carlisle was the oldest of his siblings and before his commission time came he studied and trained in the medical field. Although it isn't required of him, and often discouraged due to his royal duties, he frequently holds hours in the clinics and stays current on all his training.

Bella lay there pale and exposed, only her very private areas covered by a thin sheet. The sides of the table folded up kind of like a small boat, ensuring that Bella cannot fall from the table. Attached to tubes and wires she lays there helpless unable to voice her discomfort as twenty strangers peer at her in a vulnerable state.

I'm about to speak up as Bella's body begins to jolt and shake. The two doctors calmly called for medicines to be administered as the scanning equipment was returned over the table and began to rock over Bella's head. The shaking stops quickly and the only sound in the room is the clicks of the scanner.

"She's swelling." Carlisle said to no one in particular when the results were displayed. Carlisle walks to the chairs that I was once sitting in and moves one to sit beside Bella. He does not touch her or look at her, but seems to just stare at the wall directly opposite of him, his face scrunching up in frustration from time to time.

I look to Harry and gain his attention with a light tap on his shoulder and he turns towards me. "Can we give her some privacy? She would not be comfortable with how exposed she is." I ask unsure, it isn't exactly my place to request such things. I'm charged with her protection and well being, but I still feel that this is out of my scope. Over the last few days I've gotten to know Bella, and although she is quiet and reserved I feel a bond with her.

Harry understands immediately when he looks to Bella then towards all the people in the room. "I need all non-essential people out of the room please. Embry, I would like you and Emily to stay. I will stay with the King." The extra security and medical professionals were quick to heed Harry's request and leave the room.

After the door closes I breathe a sigh of relief and relax. King Carlisle is still deep in thought by Bella's side, so I refrain from going to her even though the need to comfort her is pulling at my heart. Dr. Gerandy is in equal deep thoughts, only he is looking at the monitors, waiting patiently for changes or answers.

"It's a toxin." King Carlisle says abruptly to the quiet and pensive room.

"We didn't detect anything in the blood." A nurse replies, ignoring usual protocol for the royal and speaking out.

"Test the anesthetic vial." He requests, and the nurse goes and retrieves the carefully labeled vial from the tray it was laid on. Carlisle goes back to his silent thoughts and I allow myself to sit back in the chair I was sitting in before all the madness started.

I sit waiting calming myself, I want to speak out and ask questions. I want to know what is wrong and if she will recover, but I know that my outburst can't be answered and they will tell us what we need to know when they can.

Harry's communicator beeps and he speaks into it briefly and then the door is opening. Eleazar walks in swiftly but stalls and pales when he takes in Bella's form. His mouth opens and closes repeatedly and he looks at me. But I don't move, I just stare into his eyes giving him no physical confirmation to whatever he is thinking. He staggers over to sit next to me and finally finds his voice, "What happened?"

"She is having a reaction to the anesthetic, but King Carlisle thinks there is a toxin in her system." I reply quietly, letting the two frustrated doctors think.

"A toxin?" Eleazar exclaims rather loudly. At that Carlisle turns his head and addresses Eleazar.

"It's just a theory, because the changes in both medications and genetics have eliminated allergic reactions in anesthetics, for some time. The vial is being tested now." He walks over to us and looks to me. "Has she eaten anything abnormal? Tried anything new?"

"Embry has cooked every meal for her, and she has been in isolation since she arrived. A standard diet by my accounts." I reply sitting up straighter. King Carlisle looks to Embry nods his head in approval and without another word walks back to sit by Bella.

"Prince Emmett is outside waiting for word." Eleazar says.

"Emily can you move the privacy screen in so we can block his view, I would like him to be with us." I do as he asks and Embry soon lets Prince Emmett in. The remaining people in the room seem to remember that a royal is in the room with us and we bow our heads. There wasn't time for formalities when the King joined the room and it didn't appear to bother him one bit.

"What's wrong?" He asks boisterously. Just as Dr. Gerandy inhales harshly and calls for Carlisle.

Carlisle jumps up and walks to the monitors, "Just a minute son."

Emmett comes to sit on my other side and his big frame bumps into my shoulder, he leans forward and rests his elbows on his knees. He turns his head and smiles at me, but you can see the stress in his eyes. "Hi Emily, Eleazar."

"Hi Emmett." I respond with a smile to my childhood friend no formalities between us.

"What's going on?" He asks me much quieter than his first time, but still loud enough for Carlisle and Dr. Gerandy to hear.

"Be patient son." Carlisle chastises his son from behind the screen. Even though Emmett is much larger than his father, he knows not to question the King. And bows his head slightly but still manages a wink to me. We can both hear the two doctors talking quietly back and forth, not being able to make out the words they are saying.

Dr. Gerandy and Carlisle walk to us and speak quickly, "It's a plant derivative, one that Society doesn't grow and we are not familiar with it. It wasn't the anesthetic that got injected into Miss Bella. We are sending what we have to the lab to create a reversal if they can." Dr. Gerandy says seriously.

"Harry we need to increase security immediately and organize testing of all medications and equipment in the facility. Send home anyone here that isn't needed for immediate testing."

"That might cause panic sire." He returns.

"Better panic than someone else getting hurt." The king concludes.

"I don't understand who would do this? Was Bella targeted?" I ask immediately suspicious when Carlisle, Harry and Emmett all share looks. "What aren't you telling me? I cannot protect her if I don't have all the information."

Carlisle stressfully rubs his hands on his face. "Fill the team in Harry, I don't think this is a fluke anymore."

We went to a conference room after that where Sam, Embry and I were seated. King Carlisle, Prince Emmett and Harry along with three intelligence officers from The Forum sat and told of us the threat. When we first were given this duty we were told that Bella was the best candidate for Prime and didn't think it odd that security would be needed. But it made more sense now after all the information had been laid out.

No one has spoken as Sam, Embry and I pass the intelligence sheets in the file to each other, trying to soak up all the information. Emmett's usual playful expression is gone replaced with a seriously forlorn look, he is the first one to speak up, emotion heavy in his voice.

"What is her prognosis?" He asks towards Dr. Gerandy.

"If we can counteract the toxin soon, it's great, but as of right now her brain is still swelling. She isn't sedated, she isn't breathing, she isn't responding to stimuli. We are doing what we can and we hope that the medications can control the symptoms to allow her to recover with no lasting effects. Right now she is in a non-induced coma"

We all let that soak in for a minute before Emmett speaks up again. "Security?" he says to Sam avoiding making eye contact directly with me. His voice is thick and I've never seen such a dreadful expression on his face.

"I am going to be calling in the rest of the team from the borders. Assuming she recovers we will need to test everything she comes in contact with, food, medications, even the air. Obviously someone has made an attempt on her life, I'll let the intelligence group figure that out. But my biggest worry is how did they get into the testing facility and change out the medicines? There has either been a lapse in security or there is someone working on the inside. Has anything odd happened with the other possible candidates?" Sam asks.

"Bella is the last one of the hundred to go through their testing, everyone else is back home." Emmett replies.

"So can we assume that Miss Bella is being targeted?" Sam asks the three Forum members.

"Yes." One says after sharing a look with the other two.

"Then I'm going to assume that they know that she is our best candidate so far. She is still a candidate correct?"

"We will assess this if she recovers." They say.

"I'll put a new plan into place, I'll need full access to all information and we need to start combing through footage." He says to the three men. "I'll need Seth and Leah for that." He says looking towards Harry. Harry gives him a questioning look while I try to keep my face neutral. "Leah is the fastest person that can do this that I trust, and Seth can anticipate her needs and support her, almost if they can hear each other's thoughts." Harry thinks on this for a moment and looks to me then nods.

I groan internally, this is going to be uncomfortable. Sam and Leah were childhood sweethearts but met me in training and his alliances changed. I feel terrible for the way things happened, and Leah still hates me to this day. Sam reassures me that I am who he wants, but I am uncomfortable under her hateful stares when we have to work together.

"She's the favorite." Emmett states to no one in particular.

"Yes Emmett, she is the best candidate so far." Carlisle says to his son confirming, although bewildered as to why he is saying it at all.

"No, you don't understand, she is Edward's favorite." He reiterates.

"What? How do you know, how does he know of Bella?"

"He doesn't know of Bella, but every time we go through the candidate cards, her card gets set off to the side." Emmett presses.

"Cards, what cards?" The King asks.

"The cards the Forum gave me to let him look at." He gives his father an expression that it's obvious.

"I didn't get to look at any cards." The king says sounding like a jealous adolescent.

"An experiment sire. This is the youngest commission that will be held to date, and we needed to change things." One of the Forum officers spoke. I don't understand the meaning, but I keep quiet while they ponder this information.

We returned to Bella's room after that, Sam on his communicator in the hall. The doctors and nurses by her side.

And that's how it was for ten straight days. Quiet. No one saying much at all, no conversations, no kind greetings, just nods and information. The flight team had retrieved Seth and Leah from the Outland borders and I had only seen Leah once, during briefing. Seth however came by often to offer support to us and to check on Miss Bella. The boys from the craft have come to offer us support as well. Standing guard and helping with intelligence.

Kim frequently sits with me next to Bella, still lying on the table lifeless. Sam scolds me for not resting often enough, but I feel responsible for what has happened, even though I know that I couldn't do anything to change it. I ignore Sam's request much to his amusement. He knows that he can't make me do anything that I don't want. But the person I find the most helpful and am surprised most about is Paul.

Paul is generally withdrawn, almost angry sometimes. But he spoke up to me a few days ago when I asked him what he was doing.

He was sitting next to Bella, gently wetting her lips with a wash cloth. "Paul?"

"They are dry." He said simply. I couldn't help but give him a questioning look, I had noticed his odd behavior around Bella a few days ago; simple touches, petting her hair, squeezing her hand, whispering things into her ear.

"She is probably going to be our next Queen Paul." I chastise him, thinking that he has a fondness for her which in inappropriate.

"Yes she probably will." He says confidently, looking down on her with a broad smile. "Wait? No Emily." He says finally realizing the meaning behind my words.

"Then what is it Paul, I don't understand."

"She reminds me of my mother." And at that I nod my head and say no more. Paul had lost his mother when he was younger. He usually gets very defensive when discussion of his mother comes up. But right now he looks peaceful, and I'm glad he can feel this way. Although I'm not sure how Bella would feel about it. She is cold sometimes even to my attempts at comfort, but perhaps it's all the things that we must keep from her that makes her act as such.

So it's been just us, Paul and I and a team of nurses sitting by her side. Dr. Gerandy and even the King stop by often to look at her stats, but mostly they are working on the anti-toxin in the lab. All activity has been shut down in the testing center as quietly as it could. There hasn't been any panic, a cleaver move of additional training and building inspections for all those not related to Bella's case. The people here getting tested were told that they were getting a reprieve before they finished. None thought that odd so, or no one voiced their opinions otherwise, so it all worked in our favor.

I'm once again trying to read my book, the same book that I was reading when this mess started. I read the words on the pages several times and find that I can't remember any of it. So I do it again, repeating the same process, trying to pass the time.

The door opens and I look to see both King Carlisle and Dr. Gerandy enter the room hastily. Dr. Gerandy carries a small case directly to Bella's bed and places it down. I stand to see when he opens the case, that it contains a syringe. He takes it and inserts it into the port of Bella's IV and presses the plunger down.

"Is that the anti-toxin?"

"Yes." Carlisle says excitedly with a bright smile on his face.

"How long will it take?" I ask.

"It may take some time. We can't see the toxin in her blood but we know it's there. It may be awhile until the anti-toxin makes its way around her body. And we still do not know the lasting effects it will have in her system." He says.

We all turn towards the monitors and wait with bated breath for Bella's condition to change. "She just took a breath." Dr. Gerandy says with relief.

"King Carlisle, you need to leave." I say quickly, suddenly realizing that he cannot be seen by Bella.

He gives me a strange look, and then quickly understood my meaning. "Oh, yes. Dr. Gerandy, call if you should need my help. Thank you Emily, may we have a quick word in the hallway?"

"Yes." I say. Dr. Gerandy bows his head to the royal and we exit the room.

Prince Emmett and Eleazar are both in the hallway, along with most of our security team. I naturally gravitate towards Sam, even though I know he is in strict professional mode and will give me no more attention than required for the job.

"This might be premature, but The Forum has discussed moving commission to an underground facility. And if Bella recovers I want to rush the start of commission immediately. As soon as Bella is moved over and secure, I want escort for each candidate chosen." He says looking to Paul, and Paul nods back. "There will be no press for this, there will be no celebrations. I want the Prime position secured as soon as possible."

"Bella must not know what truly happened. We can tell her she had a reaction, nothing more until commission is over. Do not show your favoritism towards Bella if she is chosen. Commission is an open process and all the girls will be together. You must protect all of them, tell Bella only what you must so that she understands that you are no longer there just for her." He says to me directly, and I bow my head.

"Emmett, I will be monitoring Bella from the palace now, but I want you to stay. Keep out of sight from her and keep your eyes open. Report to me and Harry anything that you think needs attention." Emmett bows his head to his king father.

A nurse pokes her head out of the room. "Emily, Miss Bella is coming around."

I look to the King surprised and silently ask to be relieved. He tilts his head for me to go back to the room, and I bow my head to him. Paul and I go back into the room to see Dr. Gerandy pulling the tube out of Bella's mouth.

"Is she conscious?" I ask.

"Not quite, but she is moving around a bit and fully breathing on her own." He says while attaching a tube to her nose for extra oxygen. "Go ahead and talk to her and see if we can't get her to come around."

"Miss Bella?" I say while Paul goes to the other side and starts rubbing her cheek gently with his thumb, her head cradled in his large hand. I squeeze her hand and her fingers move underneath mine. "Her color is returning." I say excitedly to Paul.

"Yes, she doesn't look like a dead person anymore."

"Paul." I fake chastise.

"I'm just saying." He shrugs with a smirk.

"Not dead." I hear and look down to Bella, to see her grimacing.

"Are you in pain Miss Bella?" I ask worried.

"No, just don't feel right." She exclaims, her voice still scratchy. Paul catches on and offers her a glass of water, putting a straw to her mouth.

"Drink, slowly." Her eyes pop open at the sound of his deep voice, her body rigid with fear. She looks to me and down to her body and sees that she is covered and relaxes.

"Do you want Paul to leave Bella?" I ask and she looks to Paul and he gives her a gentle smile. She takes a minute before answering.

"Nnno." She stutters slightly and continues to look at Paul curiously. "You were my pilot."

"Yes." He smiles brightly after she recognizes him, but she just looks confused.

"He is part of your security team Bella, he just happens to be the best pilot among us." She nods in understanding and closes her eyes again while taking a drink from the proffered cup.

"Are the tests over?" she asks, her voice loosens up even more and we can hear her better.

"We didn't get to do them Miss Bella." Dr. Gerandy speaks up. Her eyes open and she looks at him, confused. "You had a reaction to the sedative we gave you. You were in a coma for ten days." He says quietly.

All our eyes are on Bella as different emotions cloud her face. "My father, was he notified?"

"No he wasn't Bella, security reasons." Dr. Gerandy says shortly, so that she knows not to ask questions.

Her eyebrows furrow in frustration, but she takes a few breaths and calms down before asking her next question. "Am I okay?"

"We will have to run some tests and monitor you for a few days." She scrunches her nose up at the mention of tests. But lays back and closes her eyes again.

That's practically how she stayed for the next few days, as the doctors assessed her and continued the tests that they originally sought out to if they could. It was agreed that they would not sedate her again, and she had adamantly stated that she was against it fearing the same thing would happen when Dr. Gerandy said they would continue the tests, even though we knew that she would not have the same reaction.

She went through some of the painful tests spectacularly, she was quiet and refused to comment on her discomfort only squeezing mine and Paul's hands after demanding he be present, proper or not. She felt safe with him she said, and after her waking they talked for hours. He talked about his mother more openly than I have ever heard him, and they bonded over the loss of their mothers together.

He even stayed with her through the Hag scan, her feet in the air and the clicks of the machine filling the room. He looked into her eyes and talked to her, trying to make her laugh and forget that her privates were on display. He never once tried to peer down at her, or catch a peek at all the other times that she was exposed. It surprised me that the hard man that Paul usually is can care for someone so sweetly that he has no connection to.

Paul helps Bella walk down the hall and into the lift. Back to the apartment for the first time in almost half a month, her legs still weak as her body continues to recover from the toxin of unknown origin. She will continue the testing tomorrow, deemed well enough for the emotional phase.

Once she is in bed and out for the night, I sit in a chair in the kitchen area and let out a breath of relief, happy that things are almost back to normal.

Or at least normal as this whole crazy process is.

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><p><strong>AN: Extra long chapter for an extra long wait. Life got busy the last few weeks. Softball season started and me and my husband are coaches to 13 5-8 year olds! Very busy stuff.**

**Okay back to the story. This chappy took me a while to write because I had to make sure little important details were right where they needed to be for later in the story. What do yall think about Paul and Bella *raises eyebrows suggestively*. HA HA Don't get to excited Paul lovers. And +1 to everyone who gave a review and pushed the story over 100. Half way to the next 50 mark, woohoo!**

**Question of the Day: How pissed would you be if they didn't tell you that you were poisoned, even if the King ordered it? **


	9. Chapter 9

**I do not own twilight, nor have ever claimed to!**

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><p><strong>BPOV<strong>

My home.

A flower.

My father.

The capital.

My mother's grave.

My school.

A gun.

A child.

Picture after picture of things related to my life, and others that were meant to trigger an emotional response. I'm back in the medical room again, not by choice or by routine I'm told. Emily told me that this is the most secure room to be in now, so the remainder of my testing will be here if possible.

I'm agitated just being in here with its white walls, with white drawers and white chairs.

White.

White.

White.

I'm so sick of seeing white, or is it the absence of color? I stayed still for days after I woke up, lying on my back looking at the white walls. White, the color of purity they teach us. White, more like the color of my prison and the color of my current mood; although before this white room I wouldn't associate the color with turmoil. Anxiety… something I have never dealt with before this process has become a constant in my life, despite the distractions of my new friend.

Paul. I can truly say he is a friend now. He tries his best to keep me engaged in conversations or say goofy things to make me smile and laugh. He shared with me about his mother when I would only give one word answers to questions. He talked for an hour straight until I got the courage to speak back. I felt so lonely here before him. I know Emily and Kim had tried their best but they have orders and shut me down when I got to inquisitive so I withdrew into myself and kept quiet. The complete opposite of what Paul does.

I'm not sure if he is truthful when he says "I don't know" to all my questions, whether he is trying to make me feel better or he isn't trusted with the information. The man is a complete gossip, telling me all the latest juicy details on my security team. It didn't take many questions on my part to get him to spill all his secrets either; perhaps he was just trying to keep me absorbed in conversation instead of retreating into my mind once again.

"Miss Bella." Eleazar says gaining my attention.

"Yes." I speak, not able to turn my head or see him. I am strapped in to this helmet contraption with pokey wires pressing down into my skin and goggles with the straps secured tightly giving me a headache from the pressure. Electrodes are stuck to my skin all over my body with an adhesive that is beginning to itch.

"We have to start over." He says to me exasperated.

"Why?" The tone of my voice makes me flinch and remember where I am. My behavior these last few days has been deplorable. My father would chastise me for such, but he is not here. Paul laughs and calls me a spitfire, Emily looks at me with disappointment and Embry makes a point to face away from me whenever I say something I shouldn't. I think he is hiding his laughs, but despite knowing its wrong I keep acting like a fool. I might regret that soon.

"You weren't paying attention. You must look at each picture and complete the cycle. As soon as you do this we are done for the day."

"Sorry sir. I'll try to do better." I say like a scolded child.

My home, content. A flower, joy. My father, love. The capital, reverence. My mother's grave, cheated. My school, value. A gun, safety. A child, longing. Prince First Select Edward, hunger, passion, fear.

Eleazar shows me picture after picture, I make sure to pay attention to each one. At first they are warm and welcoming, and then he shows me images of what I think are the outland borders. Dirty, famine and war ridden lands, fires burning and mass graves. The final image shows and then the goggles go blank. I still see the last image as if it had been etched into my retinas. A group of children stuffed into a room, all dirty and malnourished, none of them smiling. No life or happiness in their eyes; no one to love, or to love them.

Eleazar says nothing to me as he first takes off the goggles then the helmet. I try to remain emotionless as he continues to unhook the many electrodes attached to my body. I thought I was doing a good job until I feel the tear slide down my cheeks to my ears. Eleazar remains quiet while sobs wreck my body against my will. He leaves me reclined in the chair and exits the room.

Paul and Kim are quick to enter after he leaves. Kim very cautiously looks at me in question. Paul's bright smile drops when he sees the sadness on my face.

"Are you okay?" He asks and looks over to Kim, his brow furrowed, she shrugs.

"I don't understand how seeing those things are relevant to what job I will be best at." I say hiccupping through.

"What things?" Kim asks.

"Death. Lots of death." At my statement Paul looks utterly confused for a second before wiping his features clean and then tries to explain the testing to me.

"Emotional mapping is important. They can tell exactly who you are from it. Some jobs require compassion, or indifference and this is how they tell if you would fit."

I try to center myself, he is right. I just didn't expect it to be like this. Again I didn't expect any of this to be how it is. Testing is frustrating; thank The Forum I only have to do this once.

"Let's get back to the apartment and have some dinner. Embry made you vegetable lasagna." Kim encourages me.

"Okay, that sounds good." I say getting up. They escort me to the hallway, and the short walk to the lift. Sam is at the end of the hall as always, and I see no other people. After the short ride on the lift Quil is waiting near the apartment door and lets us in with a smile and that odd head bow everyone does here in the capital.

Eleazar comes and joins us after we eat for my nightly counseling session and asks me how I feel after the emotion mapping session.

"Truthfully, I feel odd. I think I am just surprised about this whole situation. Nothing is what I heard it was."

"Well each session is tailored to the person getting the test. Many factors including results of your pre-testing go into the formula for your sessions."

"I see." I say tersely. I know he can't give me any answers so I keep quiet and try to understand on my own why they showed me all those dark pictures when my life has been full of happiness other than my mother's death.

"What is next?" I ask coldly.

The tone of my voice seems to catch Eleazar off guard and it takes him a few moments to reply. "Uh, academic testing is next, and will continue for about 2 weeks, pending on how fast you go. But I don't want you to rush through it, you will get no bonus points for speed." He says trying to make a joke.

"Okay. May I go to bed?" I ask my face blank and emotionless. On the inside I'm elated. Academics I can deal with. I may not be the smartest in my home group, but it's normal to me. We study hard knowing it will affect the rest of our lives.

"Yes." Paul finally speaks up after looking at Eleazar and Kim's confused faces. I know I'm acting oddly, and I know I shouldn't be doing it, but I am honestly overwhelmed and can't wait for a bit of normalcy.

I lie in bed and stare at the ceiling unable to shut off the images that I seen earlier in the day. Why would they show me these things? What job would they give me that I would need to even know about the existence of these horrid situations?

Perhaps this is a test of my will. When will my mind shut down and give up, and quit fighting for normalcy?

I need to wake up tomorrow with a new attitude or I fear I may fail at testing which can't actually happen. "Trust The Forum to know what's best with my health and safety, and with my education and livelihood." I say quietly to the empty room as a prayer.

I was able to fall asleep quickly after my new outlook on this testing charade and bounded out to breakfast with a smile and a hop in my step. Emily and Paul were both waiting for me at the table reading over some papers in front of them. Embry is in the kitchen chopping up some vegetables and gives me a warm smile when he sees me. Emily bows her head to me after getting out of her chair and offering it to me.

"Good morning Miss Bella." She and Paul both greet me. I take the seat offered to me and offer my thanks with a smile that they didn't see yesterday. I am determined to show them the warm loving side of me, not the scared, confused and submissive person that they have seen.

"How are you guys this morning?" I ask.

After their confused looks towards each other, Emily finally speaks up, "We are great Miss Bella."

"Good, what's for breakfast Embry? Do you need help?" I ask overly happy.

"No, no Miss Bella I don't need help, you relax a bit before you go to testing. I am going to make you a garden omelet if that sounds alright?" Embry seems confused too, can't blame him, I've been entirely uncaring to all of them.

"That sounds wonderful." I tell him, Paul is looking at me sideways his brows lifted in question.

"I did some thinking last night, and I'm sorry to all of you for being so rude. Testing is nothing like I expected it to be, and I let the confusion control me. I hope I can behave more like myself until I go home and we can put all this behind us." I explain. Paul smiles as always, well… not really a smile more like a smirk, like he is high fiving himself in his head for solving the problem before I had. Emily smiles brightly to me as usual and nothing more is said on the topic.

The rest of the day goes equally as smooth as I spent the afternoon testing on mathematics, mapping out graphs and solving complex equations. The next day I'm tested on Biology and other categories of science and leave the room with a smile of my face.

Ten days pass just as easily, well not quite easy as some of the materials being tested were beyond my skill level but I took it in stride and didn't let it bring me down. And I was surprised when Eleazar informed me that I had only one day of testing left, the psychological test.

My curt answers were not adequate enough for this test. Eleazar and I sat in the room as he quizzed me and dug into my mind for hours.

How did that make you feel? Were you angry? Do you feel loved?

Every aspect of my life and how I handled it was now known to this practical stranger, a fact that worried me only slightly. I knew this is a test and it is required, and that made it easier to talk, but I couldn't help but feel like this information could be used against me somehow. My father had always told me to keep my private life private, that lying and gossip feed anger and regret. So I spoke truthfully and shared me secret feelings for the first time in my life. None of the questions seemed out of the ordinary and although I know time passed, it was over quickly.

I didn't expect the question Eleazar asked me when I was leaving the room, Emily by my side and Paul holding the door.

"Miss Bella, you don't think you'll be Prime do you?"

"No." I answered truthful.

"Why?"

"Society deserves someone better. I didn't have a mother and I don't know the first thing about being a mother. How could I possibly be the Mother of Heirs?" And without further word, he smiled sadly and bowed his head to me. I turned and left the room with my security escorts.

It wasn't until later that evening when Sam ushered my security detail out of the apartment to go over their new orders that I realized that my testing was over. I've been here for nearly a month, a month in which I had not talked to my father, nor had he gotten word of my illness; a month of nearly no interaction with anyone except Eleazar, Dr. Gerandy and my security detail. The breath left my lungs and I slouched back into the couch I was sitting in, my solid facade slipping slightly, finally realizing how tired I am.

I cannot wait until I get back to my normal routine, school, work and family. But my hopes are quickly crushed when Paul walks into the room, shoulders hunched with a sad smile on his face.

"Do you want the good news or the bad news?" He asks.

"Bad, always bad first." I say to him as he takes a seat opposite of me. I see Emily and Kim come and stand near the edge of the room.

"Bad news is, this is the last night we get to spend with you."

"And the good?" I ask trying not to show my excitement that testing and the disruptions of my life are almost over.

"We fly tonight." He nearly shouts in joy.

"You like flying the best don't you?"

"Yes, I'm the best pilot too."

"So I'm to go home tonight?" Joy radiates through my words, but Emily frowns and refuses to look me in the eye. Paul looks straight at me and gives me an answer I don't want to hear, but he lays it straight for me.

"Nope. Emily can explain that to you. I have to go and study the flight plan for I have no idea where we are supposed to take you, at least I've never flown there before." He says and stands up and bows to me before running excitedly out of my room.

I look towards Emily and Kim and they both take notice and take the seat that Paul had just vacated. They look sad and reluctant to give up any information.

"This is something that is going to upset me isn't it? Well get it over with." I say bluntly, surprising both of the women sitting so meekly in front of me.

"We just got word from The Forum, commission is set and you are a candidate for prime."

"Well, that's not something I expected, but there is no reason to act so sad about it." I say as they look at me curiously. Then I realize what Paul had said before he left, that I wouldn't be going home. "It's going to start right away." I say out loud to myself. "I won't get to see my father."

"No Miss Bella, you will be taken to the new facility tonight." Kim says to me.

"New facility?"

"Yes, a new…" and Kim looks toward Emily before continuing, "private facility has been constructed specifically for this commission." She says quickly.

And before I could ask any questions the apartment door swings open abruptly and Quil walks in behind a behemoth of a man, and in my shock it took me a few moments to realize that the large man was Prince Emmett. I stand and bow my head, my eyes on my toes and I squeak out, "Good Evening Prince Emmett." I do not know if he heard my tiny voice for sure, until his booming voice is nearing me.

"Miss Bella, it's a pleasure to meet you." Only then do I look up and realize that a royal is bowing to me with pride. His stance is strong and straight, his face holding such reverence. Practice I'm sure, something a royal would be well rehearsed in. I can't help but feel a flutter in my stomach though at the pure respect radiating from him, despite the confusion of why he would bow to me at all.

He takes a seat directly next to Emily and pecks her on the cheek once before sitting back and crosses his leg over the other, looking very relaxed. I however am standing board straight unsure what is customary to do in the presence of a royal. He obviously sees my struggle and motions for me to sit down and he chats quietly with Emily.

Kim notices my questioning look at the two smiling friendly and whispering quiet words to each other, "They grew up together, and remain very close." Hearing Kim's voice the two friends look up and smile and he bumps her shoulder gently with his, and she returns the gesture by punching him hard in the upper arm.

"I'm trying to pretend that didn't hurt. Blessed Rebirth girl, you hit hard." He exclaims through his tightly closed teeth while rubbing his shoulder and laughing. Emily looks tiny beside Emmett and it humors me to see her smiling smugly at him. I watch their playful banter for a moment before Kim starts yelling.

"Quil get out of the food!"

"I'm hungry."

"We are flying all night, let him eat." Emmett says.

"All night?" I ask wondering how far away the new facility is.

"Not you Miss Bella. Your flight shouldn't take too long, but we will be ushering the other candidates out of bed." Quil tells me.

"That's not what normally happens is it?"

The four others in the room are either looking towards each other for the answer to my question or trying to ignore it all together before Emmett clears his throat and stumbles through a response.

"Uh this commission is quite different from others. All the candidates are under age so… precautions are being taken as per the request of The Forum. There will be no immediate press as in the past. No naming ceremony or updates of progress of commission. It will be quiet and then we will spring the new Prime on Society at the end and surprise them all." He says animated at the end.

I know that they are placating me with information that may be truthful, but it certainly isn't the whole truth. I don't say another word knowing full well that they won't tell me anything anyway.

Sam walks in with Embry hot on his heels, both carrying various black bags and equipment. "Miss Bella time to get your things packed quickly as you can, transports are being prepared right now."

After my bag is packed with the few items that I was allowed to bring, Emily rushes into my room and demands I change into a similar black uniform that she and the rest of security are wearing. She gives me a stern look when my mouth opens to ask why, so I shut it and do as I am told.

I walk out after changing and am quickly led out the door and out of the facility, Prince Emmett walking between us all. We get into the same white cars that I rode in on the way here and we are quickly driven to the landing pad where two transports are waiting.

Sam, Embry and Kim walk towards the far one while Prince Emmett, Emily and I quickly climb into the closest one. The blades are already spinning and Quil is waiting for us to fasten our lap belts before handing us headsets and doing a quick sound check with each of us.

I sit nervously in my seat smashed between Emily and Prince Emmett, the haste of the situation making me more anxious than sitting next to a Royal. Paul leans over the seat and gives me a big toothy grin, relaxing me, if he isn't worried than I shouldn't be either.

"Ready Miss Bella?" He asks excitedly and I can't help the elation that spreads on my face and nod excitedly back to him. "Great."

I hear the 2nd transports engines whir to life and then the crew quickly goes over their routine checks and we are quickly into the air.

The thrum of the engines and the dark night make me sleepy. My eyes close and my head bobs until I feel a hand on my head urging me to lay it down where I slept until I heard the explosion and felt pain on the side of my head before all went dark.

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><p><strong>AN: AAAHHHH It's been forever. Softball prep is kicking my arse. And my husband decided now would be a great time to build a fence. So there has been a lot of physical activity and hardly any computer time lately.**

**And I hate cliff hangars, but I hate them less than changing POV's during a chapter. So I will get to work on the next one ASAP!**

**Question of the day. What is your environmental guilty pleasure? You know its not good for the planet, but you still use it. Mine is plastic! I LOVE the versatility of plastic, yet it is made from oil, and isn't very biodegradable. **

**Leave a review, I like reviews!**


	10. Chapter 10

**I own 12 hoodies but not twilight.**

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><p>Emmett POV<p>

I woke up coughing with black smoke surrounding me. I can barely hear Paul shouting over the ringing in my ears and it takes me a moment to realize where I am and what is happening.

"Can anyone hear me!" Paul shouts.

"Yeah." I cough out after finding the switch to speak on my headset.

"Blessed Rebirth," he exclaims. "What do you see? How are the others?"

I look around squinting, the smoke is making my eyes water. Bella is unconscious lying across my lap, jostling around with the erratic movement of the disabled transport. Blood is dripping down her neck from a wound in her hair. Emily is moaning and starting to open her eyes, holding her shoulder and grimacing. Quil who was not buckled is on the floor pushing himself up to his knees with his arms.

"Emily's shoulder is hurt, Quil is getting up and Bella is unconscious and there is blood coming from her hair."

"Is she breathing?" He asks and I check.

"Yes."

"Quil?" Paul asks.

"Hold on he is getting his headset back on." I say to him and Quil hears me finish telling Paul this. I hold Bella as still as I can, but the transport is rocking and spinning. It's making me dizzy and sick to my stomach, my muscles are starting to ache.

"What happened?" Quil asks.

"I don't know, but I have one engine and no communications to Sam." Paul says grunting, I can see a small view of his body from the gap between his and Jared's seats. His arm is taught holding the cyclic firmly and using his other hand to turn dials and switches above his head. I'm seated behind Jared and can't see him at all.

"Give me a minute." Quil says, grabbing handles above our heads to move around the craft to a control panel and starts working.

"Paul, how is Jared?" I ask.

"I don't know, I can't check and we are losing altitude, I can't get control." He says strained.

"Okay Paul, Com's are a go." Quil says slamming the door shut on the panel, he takes a look at the other gauges and things before coming over to us. I can no longer hear Paul in the headset, but I can hear his shouts to Sam.

"Prince Emmett, are you alright?" He asks me looking over me quickly.

"Yes, Bella is bleeding though." I look down to her lifeless body flopping around with the gyration of the transport. Emily has her one arm in her lap, not moving her should and struggling to get her headset back on. Quil helps her before looking down to Bella.

"Shit that hurts, what happened." She curses to us, looking down to Bella too. "Is she okay?"

"Head wound." Quil tells her "Are you okay?"

"Dislocated shoulder I think. What about Paul and Jared?" She asks.

"Paul is trying to gain control, let me check on Jared. Hold her neck still Emmett." He says to me, all propriety lost at the point, which doesn't bother me at all.

Alarms are going off as I look towards the window and see the horizon, and then it disappears below us again. The trees come back into view and we are spinning and bobbing in the air. The view makes me queasy so I look back to Bella and try to hold her still.

"Hold on guys, this is going to be a rough landing, head between your knees. Get buckled Quil, now!" Paul says to us the trees getting closer. I can hear the engines being pushed to their fullest power and the transport jets forward before the other engine catches fire and we fall hard to the ground, miraculously landing on the transports feet.

Paul is the first to get out of the cockpit cursing the entire time and works tediously to get Jared freed. Quil nods down at Bella silently asking if I can get her out, in which I nod back. I pick her up slowly without moving her too much and jump down from the craft to the grassy floor below. Emily limps out, holding her arm close to her body, grimacing.

With Jared and Bella on the ground lying next to each other a good ways from the craft, Quil and Paul begin pulling equipment from the transport. The fire from the engine is rapidly spreading towards the main compartment so they work quickly until all of the items are off the ship. Quil tosses a gun to Paul and he slips the strap around his shoulder and continues to work.

"Call your dad." Quil tosses me a large communicator with a rigid antenna and I press in the code for him.

"Carlisle." He answers scruffily, obviously waking him up in the late hour.

"Dad, we crashed…" I started saying before there was a large explosion, the fuel tanks finally catching fire. I drop the com and cover Bella as best as I can. I can feel the heat on my back, the hair on my neck singes and the smell of fuel and smoke is heavy in the air. I begin coughing again so I press myself as low to the ground as I can to allow time for the smoke to rise. After a few moments the roar of the fire lowers enough to hear again.

"Emmett, are you there?" I can hear my dad shouts from where the com lays on the ground. I reach down and hold it to my ear, still covering Bella's unresponsive body in case more explosions happen.

"Yeah I'm here." I cough out.

"What happened?"

"Shit I don't know, there was an explosion and then we crashed. Paul was able to get us down in one piece." Quil motions for me to hand him the com, and I do.

"Sire, we lost an engine in an explosion and went down… Bella and Jared are unconscious but both breathing, Bella has a head wound… Yes sire I can see him circling above… Yes sire here he is." And he hands the phone back to me as I look up to see Sam's transport hovering above us with bright lights shining down.

"Dad."

"Emmett, Quil is getting you the med kit, you need to use the patching to press on Bella's wound and then wrap it up tight." Quil hands me the large bag and digs through it and hands me some patching before leaving me.

"Okay done."

"Pull out the drug pack, grab a red vial and put it into the dose manager, it looks like a gun. Turn it to 7 and shot it into her thigh."

"What's that do?" I ask while following his instructions carefully.

"It's the combat combination drug. It has a bunch of medications that can help her."

"Okay done."

"Good Job, do the same thing for Jared, dose him at an 11. And wait for transport, the fleet is on their way to you. Hold tight." The soft disconnection tone sounds and I continue to work on the two unconscious people.

Emily crawls over and takes the medicine thingy from me and pulls out the red vial with her teeth and unsteadily replaces it with a blue one before jamming it into her leg.

"Shit" she yells out, no one caring one bit about her language.

Paul is standing over us, brandishing a large weapon while Quil is still running around gathering scattered equipment and talking into a communicator I'm assuming to Sam but I'm not sure as I can't hear him over the roar of the fire. He yells out to Paul and then tosses him something; Paul's gun falls to his side attached with the strap around his shoulder and back.

After he looks over the object in his hands Paul gets a furious look on his face, feral.

"What is it Paul?" I ask loudly.

"It's a detonation cap, someone blew up my ship." He grits his teeth, and I sit up straighter and begin to look around us. Who were they trying to kill? Bella, me or the crew? I know this squad has been on some very tricky missions and came out unscathed and victors in all of them. They worked amazingly well together, and had been appraised several times by The Forum.

A loud thud sounds behind me and Quil runs over to find a bag dropped from above. I look up and see that 3 more ships are over head.

"They're going to powder. Put this on Emmett, give one to Bella too." I don't have time to ask what he means before he shoves two full face masks into my hands. I put mine on first and feel the suction on my face when I take a breath, oxygen starts flowing and I do the same to Bella. I feel relief when I see her mask tighten down and I know she is still breathing.

Paul and Quil have put on their masks and also one on Jared before spreading a heavy black material over us. They get it spread out without too much difficulty and start releasing valves and the edges of the blanket fill with liquid and get heavy, sealing us to the ground. The light cuts outs and Quil says that we are ready into his communicator.

Loud bangs can be heard around us and occasionally I can feel a compression wave against my back. But the roar of the fire dies down until I can hear is my own breathing and the distance thwap thwap of the transports above us.

"Almost over Emmett. They will have us out in no time." Paul says next to me.

And they get us quick just like he said. First we heard them sliding down on ropes and attach clips to all the equipment that they had pulled from the wreck. Then our blanket was ripped open and I didn't have time to figure out what was going on as they quickly strapped my legs and arms into a harness before I was whirling through the air and being dragged up through the floor of a larger transport than the last. Looking down at the wreck I can see the whole scene is covered in a white powder, the ship no longer on fire.

Emily and Jared were lifted to the transport beside the one I was in. Quil had Bella strapped to his chest, her arms and legs limp, her neck and back strapped to a board with quick formed foam pillows holding her still. Paul came up last, his gun still at the ready the entire way up until he was on his feet and the floor door was closed.

Paul promptly gripped forearms with the man that was using the cable to lift us up before grabbing me by the shoulder and shoving me roughly into a seat and strapping me in.

"You good Emmett?" I just stared into his eyes unable to form a response, the crash weighing heavy on my mind. "Emmett?" he shouted louder, his head tilts to the side and his brow scrunches together. His arm swings back and he slaps me hard in the face.

"What in blessed rebirth are you doing?" I yell at him.

"You good now?" He asks firmly.

"Yeah, I'm good. Thanks" I reply sheepishly after a few moments, embarrassed at the loss of my composure.

Quil is laughing loudly, strapped into a seat, Bella still attached to his chest. Paul gave him a questioning look.

"You just slapped a Prince." He guffawed.

Paul stands up a little straighter and with the goofiest grin on his face says "Yes I did." I can't help but laugh along with them. Paul gets into the seat opposite of me and buckles in, the transport left the scene immediately. In no time we are flying through the capital into the military section of the city.

We land with a medical crew including Dr. Gerandy waiting for us. Bella is taken off first and I can see another crew taking care of Jared and Emily. Everyone leaves the transport and only Paul, Quil and I are left.

I got up to un-strap but Paul and Quil signal me to stay here.

"We don't have our orders yet. They may want to move you out of here, just stay put." Paul says to me and all is silent. No engines running, no fire roaring, no wind whistling.

"I need to go to the Magnet House after this." Quil says agitated.

"Yeah, me too." Paul agrees.

"Tell me about the Magnet House?" I ask.

"Ah the Prince is kept away from those surly things, what do you want to know?" Paul says smirking.

"You guys just go there and have sex with random people?" I say incredulously.

"Yes." Both men respond.

"So you just walk in and grab the first woman you see and screw her?" I say doubtingly.

"Ha ha, no. It's a called the Magnet House for a reason. There is attraction involved, both parties are willing. It's not trashy like you are imaging in your head. It's not classy either, but it's a place to go to get your endorphins pumping."

"No strings attached sex?"

"Yes." Both men say again.

"I couldn't do it."

"Of course you couldn't, you've had it ingrained in your mind that you're a royal and royals marry for life and will only ever have one spouse. We didn't have that. We grew up in a group were casual sex was not only allowed but encouraged in the right setting. It controls jealousy within the masses. Something I'm sure you will have when you finally get matched. Someone is going to look at your wife the wrong way and you will see red. You should find an outlet before it even starts." Quil says.

"I could spare with you." Paul says. "That is if I'm around the capital, which I'm hoping I will be now."

"Paul wants to be stuck in the capital?" Quil asks dumbly. "Who are you and what have you done with Paul?" he exclaims the cliché.

"Bella grew on me. I wouldn't mind sticking around if I got to be her security."

A growl in my chest rumbles lowly and Paul snaps his head to me and begins to explain quickly. "Nothing like that Prince Emmett." He uses my proper title letting me know he is serious. "I do not see her that way. I know she doesn't think she will be Prime, but I know for a fact that she will be. She _will_ be our next Queen, your brother's wife and your sister-in-law and it would be an honor to protect her. She is kind, brave, and has so much compassion that I know she will be great for our society." He says honestly.

I bow my head to him, unable to form a verbal response. Everything he said I truly believe as well. I just hope she comes out of her submissive shell soon, or my dear brother will have an interesting time courting her.

An awkward silence has engulfed the transport.

"I'll spar with you." I say to Paul. "So tell me about the medical stuff at the Magnet House." I say to them big-eyed, a grin on my face snapping the weird emotions out of the air instantly.

"Well if you find a girl to agree, you both have a rapid medical, she is given an injection and then you have sex." Quil says nonchalantly.

"An injection of what?"

"Pregnancy prevention, we don't want any bastards like old times." Paul says and I nod.

"How do you know if you will like who you choose? I mean everyone can't be compatible like that can they?"

"Tell him about the flavors Paul." Quil directs him.

"When you first go in, you have to list your flavors in the registry. So when you're visually attracted to someone you can look them up and see if their flavors match close enough to yours. Then after the medical, when you are in one of the rooms, it will display your shared flavors so no one goes over any boundaries."

"Flavors? What does that mean, like what you prefer they look like?"

"No, your kinks- what you like to do."

"Kinks? Explain." I say completely dumbfounded, this sure wasn't in any of my studies, of course it wouldn't be. I have just sheer knowledge of the magnet houses and other casual sex.

"Some girls like anal, guys too. Or some require oral stimulation first, or like to use toys, stuff like that." He says coolly.

"Anal?" I gasp, "I thought that was just a joke." I say disgusted, but internally the idea excites me.

"Don't knock it until you try it, it's a non-judgmental zone. We don't care what anyone else does as long as they don't cross the boundaries." Paul says seriously.

"Okay I get that… still couldn't do the casual thing. I am ready for my turn at commission so I can move on with my life." I say truthfully. Being the oldest of my siblings by four years I had to wait for Edward to come of age before we would know the order of succession. So basically my life was on hold for four years. The Forum has kept me occupied with general studies on Society of course. But they wouldn't declare me a field until Edward had been tested. And even after they wouldn't tell me as I was appointed Delegate to commission.

Delegate, I was completely surprised by that appointment. I'm not entirely sure what guidance I could give my little brother. I've never gone through commission before, and I certainly don't have any wisdom to give him about it. But I suppose that as my father is the only male heir of his siblings, they didn't want one of our aunts to proceed over him. He might not be comfortable asking more delicate questions. I know I wouldn't want to ask my aunts about sex. Not sure Edward would be comfortable asking me those questions either, I always teased him relentlessly when we were younger… okay so not much younger, like a month ago.

They both smile at my sappy looking face when the man that winched us up is walking towards us. He is a tall scruffy dark haired man with longer hair and a no bullshit way about him. Paul gets up excitedly and grasps forearms with him again, a sign of respect between soldiers.

"Garrett thanks for coming and saving our butts." Paul says cheerfully.

"Not a problem." He looks around Paul to me and bows his head to me as I do to him. "Prince Emmett, I am glad to see you safe."

"Thank you."

"Garrett this is Quil, my flight manager and a brilliant one at that, found the detonation cap before the damn ship blew."

"How is everyone?" I ask interrupting whatever Garrett was going to say next.

"Jared has a concussion and his spleen ruptured, but they are already fixing that. Emily's shoulder is back in and has taken over watching over Bella like a hawk. Bella is still unconscious, she has a slight skull fracture and a concussion, but she was starting to come around when I left." He says clearly.

"You are being requested inside. The King and Queen are here to check on you." He says pointing to me directly.

"We stay with you Prince Emmett." Paul says to me and Quil gestures me to walk ahead of him.

Sometimes I hate the formality in situations like these. Many members of this squad are considered my close friends, but traditions require them to treat me different. I really enjoy the moments when I can just talk to them like we just did before Garrett showed up.

I think this is what I am supposed to give to my younger brother during his commission; a comfortable environment to learn, with no ribbing or fear of judgment. I need the pick the boys minds about all things normal before Edward asks me a question so I'm not left standing there looking like a moron.

I'm led inside the military compound and I don't get a chance to look around before I am grasped tightly by my mother. The tiny wisp of a woman can sure hug tightly, even though her arms do not reach fully around my muscular torso.

"I'm alright mom." I say to her holding her tight against me.

"You stink like smoke." She says muffled by my shirt.

"Yup, hi dad."

"You okay?" He asks looking me over.

"Yeah I'm good, it was an interesting flight. The turbulence was outrageous. I think I need to find a new pilot." I mock looking towards Paul, who snorts and keeps walking deeper in to the facility.

"I'm glad you still have your humor son. Did you lose consciousness?"

"Yeah for just a moment, it was a hard blast. Ringing in my ears is gone now too."

"Good good, let's get down to the briefing room."

Not long after we had sat down and were waiting for a few members from The Forum to show up we heard yelling from outside the door.

"You can't go in there." I heard a woman shout.

"Watch me."

"Uh oh." I said recognizing my brother's voice. My father stands up and my little brother smashes into the room.

"Edward how did you get here?" Dad asks.

"I heard chatter on the communicator in the palace. What's going on here?"

"My transport blew up." I say simply, motioning him to sit down. My father gives me a questioning look and I pointedly look down to his chair and he gets the message and sits back down and waits for me to speak.

"Are you okay?" Edward asks breathlessly, trying to believe what I just said.

"Yes."

"Why were you on a transport this late?" He challenges me.

"What were you doing listening to communicators this late?" I confront him back.

"I've got no studies I'm bored all the damn time just sitting around waiting for commission to start." He says easily.

"Edward!" My mother chastises him for his foul language.

"Sorry mom."

"Want the truth?" I ask him leaning forward resting my elbows on the table in front of me, looking at Edward directly.

"Emmett..." My father starts to stop me, but I hold my hand up to him.

"Yes, of course." He responds to me, eyeing my father carefully.

"Commission is set, candidates have been chosen. One of the candidates was being moved in secret tonight to a new location when a device was detonated on the ship."

"So the threat is real?"

"Yes."

"Is she okay?" he asks sincerely.

"Yes." I say simply. My father is looking between us; we are speaking calmly and low, quick and to the point. He waits patiently as my brother stews over the information I've given him.

"I really want to ask a bunch of questions about their protection, but I know that you have already done everything you can. I trust you brother, but if they are in danger why are we even doing this? I can wait to get a wife."

"Society needs their Prime much more than you need your wife Edward. There are strict guidelines to keep Society in check, and we must follow them." My mother says warmly to him.

He sits back in his chair, silent again while he thinks about what my mother has said.

"She is here?" He asks and I nod. I look to my father and see him holding his breath to see what Edward will do next. "I shouldn't be here." He says before abruptly leaving the room without a parting word.

My father lets out a breath and my mother just smiles.

"We dodged a bullet, I was worried that he would go roaming around trying to find her." My mother says.

"He doesn't even know who she is" I said. "He just needs enough information to understand what is going on. He made the right decision like I knew he would."

"Not how I would have handled it, but I am proud of you Emmett, that was brilliant." My king father says to me.

We go back to waiting for The Forum advisors to arrive for the briefing. My mother is smiling, my father is smiling at her, and I am just glad that we all made it out alive.

Events seem to be escalating, what will the future hold for us?

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><p><strong>AN: 2 in 2 days! What what!**

**Who puts a bomb on a helicopter? JERKS!**

**Coming up, magnet houses and kinky sex. More lies to Bella. Catty bitches (as catty as perfect not judgemental members of Society can be.) AND Emmett gets his sex education on, very awkwardly.**

**Reviews are like giving blood, Everyone should do it!**


	11. Chapter 11

**I don't own twilight! What a shame.**

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><p>"She did not die." The older man on my right said, I kept my head and eyes down in fear of another punishment. I was not allowed to look, I was only there to listen and learn and do what was asked of me when the time came.<p>

"Did the bomb detonate?" My father asked.

"Yes, but they were able to land and then were immediately evacuated to the Capital Military facility."

"I see. At least we have a direction as to where the new facility is, we can try to take them out later." My father said in a menacing voice, very unusual to what I grew up with. He changed last year, said it was time to do my family duty. I had to be "trained", which basically meant I was punished until my body gave the right response, so I could cheat the tests. At least that was the theory, they didn't know if it could actually work.

"Do we know when the commission announcement will come through?"

"No sir, its been overly quiet in the capital."

"So we have underestimated the doctor's ability to care for the girl, we have underestimated the pilot's ability to fly, do I need to underestimate your abilities too daughter?" He says to me mockingly.

"No father." I say quietly. His right hand reaches down to my thigh and under my dress, snaking up until he makes contact with my underwear.

"I certainly hope not, I would _hate_ to see you punished again." Sarcasm and disdain dripping from his mouth like a rabid dog. "But know this _daughter_, if you fail me, you won't be punished by me. I'm certain there are men on the borders that haven't seen a pretty girl like you... well, ever!" He laughs, the others in the room joining him.

"Now go get ready, let's see how much you have _learned_. Go get in my bathroom, clothes off, face on the floor, ass in the air. Let's test how much water you can take before you start failing."

My mind switches to a place I hate as I follow directions.

I must not fail father.

I must not fail father.

I must not fail father.

I must not fail father.

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><p><strong>AN: 3 in 3, dont ask for another one, tomorrow is opening day for softball!**

**Gasp... a villain!**

**Let's hear your predictions... GO**


	12. Chapter 12

**I do not own twilight. Not Beta'd, all mistakes my own.**

**Shout out to one of my newer reviewers Miss Amrah. One of her review made me laugh and I had to use it.**

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><p><strong>BPOV<strong>

Methane.

You know that gas that smells like… you know. A leak in the fuel line that carried the methane to the engines was ignited by an electrical spark, is what led to the explosion that crashed our transport. I blame it on my personal luck. I can't walk up stairs without tripping, or cut vegetables without cutting myself. I can't get something off the top shelf without dropping it on my head and I can't be put to sleep without having a seizure. Now I can add that I can't fly without the ship blowing up to my impressive bad luck resume.

I've been wondering the last two weeks— while recovering from my head injury – if they sent my escorts just to help save me from myself.

Military assistance from clumsy people.

I snort out loud listening to my inner rambling which gets Emily's attention. She has been a constant source of support, a watcher in the corner during my stay at the military center. She only leaves when Kim or Paul comes to relieve her either for sleep or therapy for her shoulder, which had been dislocated during the crash, is almost back to normal.

"What's funny Miss Bella?" She asks me smiling.

"Just a silly thought. How's the book?" I ask her, she has been sitting huffing nearly every page turn.

"Boring, but you know that already. Are you bored too?"

"Blessed Rebirth yes." I've been sitting in the bed inspecting the hem on my black clothing for entirely longer than needed, if it was needed at all—which it wasn't.

"Maybe you'll get to leave soon, you're healed. No headaches right?"

"Not for a few days. Any idea what the holdup is?" I ask tentatively, scared I might get shut down for being too curious again.

"No Miss Bella. I haven't been privy to that information, but I don't think anyone has made a decision yet." She says to me truthfully.

"Okay." I say back, satisfied with her light response.

The door to my room opens and Paul walks in with a small child wearing the customary military black perched upon his forearm, arms gripped tightly around Paul's neck.

"Hey." He says casually. The rest of the team still insists on being formal to me, but Paul has dropped all titles and behaves rather unprofessionally around me now; much to my relief, although Sam didn't hold my sentiment though, always chastising Paul.

He walks over to a chair sits down and picks up a magazine that is laid on the table next to him, the child quietly looks around until finding something interesting in the pages Paul is looking at. Emily and I shared amused and confused looks with each other before I spoke up.

"Paul." I call to him.

"Yeah." He says to me, him nor the little boy in his lap take their eyes away from their entertainment.

"Paul." I say with a laugh, a bit louder. He looks up to me then, the smile on my face spreading to his. "You have a child with you." I state.

"Oh yeah, Bella this is Riley. Riley this is Miss Bella." Paul says and sits the child at the bottom of my bed. He folds his short legs together and his arms come to rest on his knees. He looks very curiously at me, his brown eyes taking me in. His chestnut hair flops to one side when he turns his head and squints his eyes at me.

Prince Emmett has slipped into the room and taken a seat next to Paul; who has gone back to his magazine as though nothing odd has happened. I don't spare him a look or even a welcoming gesture, as I have taken the same form as little Riley and have become entranced in our silent stare contest.

"Hi Riley" I say after a few moments.

"Hi." he says cautiously back to me. "Who are you?"

"I'm Bella, who are you?" He seems satisfied with my answer despite already being introduced to me.

"Riley." He says simply.

"Do you live here in the center?"

"Yes." He deadpans.

"Are both your parents Soldiers?" I ask quietly, trying to elicit more than a one word response, little did I know that the flood gates would open up.

"Yes, my mom's a pilot just like Paul." He says proudly. "Dad does other stuff, says I'm too young to know. They've been gone for a couple months now, but I understand why. Dad says that I need stay here and get smarter and bigger, and to 'trust The Forum.'" He says the last part in a deep voice, mocking his father.

"We all must trust The Forum." I say light hearted.

"Why?" he asks very seriously.

"There are a lot of reasons. What do you want to do after your testing?" I ask him kindly; we are still sitting very closely looking deeply into each other eyes.

"I want to be a soldier like my parents." He says excitedly.

"A soldier needs to be strong. The Forum provides us with knowledge of what to eat to make our bodies strong and they train the doctors that keep you healthy so you can grow big. A soldier also needs to be smart, and they tell us all the things we need to know. And most importantly they have created a safe environment in which you can learn and grow." I say clearly to him.

"Yeah that's what my dad says too, but I still don't get it."

"You understand why your Dad is a soldier and has to go away from you though?"

"Yes, to make us all safe."

"The Forum does the same thing in a sense. Everyone does their part to protect Society and keep it safe and functioning." I try to reason with him. He just looks at me as if none of it sank in. "How old are you?" He holds up 6 fingers.

"Why am I trying to explain how the world works to you if you are only six?" I ask him.

"I don't know." He says, shrugs his shoulders and sits up and smiles. "Want to go see where I live?" He asks as if our very serious conversation hadn't happened. I laughed loudly and peer around him to look at Emily and Paul, suddenly realizing that I hadn't properly greeted Prince Emmett.

"I apologize for not greeting you Prince Emmett." I bow my head to him.

"Don't worry about it Bella, I just came to tell you the good news."

"Good news?" Paul puts down his magazine, he and Emily listening intently to Emmett now.

"Time to leave." He says excitedly, handing Emily and Paul a small black case. They open it up and insert whatever was in the boxes into their ears. After a few moments they both say they understand, I'm guessing the things are little communicators, though I have never seen any like that.

"So you can't go see where I live?" Riley asks sadly up to me. We are standing in front of Emmett now, Riley's hand held tightly in mine.

"We have time little guy." Emmett says. Before anyone can say anything, Riley is pulling me out the door down the hallway telling me to hurry.

"Do you know who that big guy is behind us?" I ask him when he finally slows to a fast walk instead of trying to get me to run with him. He shakes his head so I lean down to him and whisper, "That's Prince Emmett."

He stops in his tracks and turns back towards my companions, his hand still tightly holding mine. He looks at Emmett intensely for a few minutes before deciding what to say. "You looked bigger on the viewer." He says matter of fact and turns and continues walking, pulling me with him.

Paul's lowed guffaw and Emily's high pitched laugh ring out. I look back at Emmett to see the biggest grin on his face, shaking his head back and forth, shoulders bouncing with silent laughter. My smile is so big my cheeks begin to hurt.

I finally feel comfortable around all the new people in my life and the honesty of little Riley makes it easier for me to let happiness fill my heart. I've been bitter and closed off for so long, and I am confident when I say that I can take things in stride now. My moments of doubt before were eating away at me, and now I have let control pass to others; leaving my mind open for conversations and learning.

I've learned a very important lesson since sitting on the couch with my father watching the viewer of the selection. I've learned to trust where my path is headed, not to worry about what ifs. I'm going where I'm going and worrying or brooding about it won't change the course. I don't question things like I had before; I know that my team will tell me what I need to know.

Riley leads me to a large open area, there are children playing in the center, and doors lined up around the outside edges. He brings me to a door on the right and enters hurriedly.

"This is my room." Riley nearly shouts before he looks up towards me, looking for approval. Quietly he says "Do you like it?"

I look up to see gray painted walls with a mural of a pale dandelion, seeds floating off onto the other walls. His bed neatly made with gray and yellow bedding complete with a stuffed animal on top. A desk to the side is littered with drawings, crayons and various other kid stuff. A small billowy chair sits low to the ground next to a bookshelf full of books all in bright colors.

"I love your room. Mine used to look like this, but now it looks very grown up. I wish I could to go back to it now, it looks fun." I kneel down next to him as he excitedly shows me different things from his room.

"Bella, this is Mrs. Cope. She takes care of the children when they are here." Paul interrupts my chatter with Riley about a toy I've never seen before.

"It's nice to meet you Mrs. Cope." I say shaking her hand. "I was unusually introduced to Riley here and he wished for me to see his room before my departure."

"I hadn't realized Riley was away, he was _supposed_ to be reading here in his room." She says amused and friendly.

"I found him in the halls again, took him to meet Bella." Paul says indifferently.

"Yes he does that often." Mrs. Cope says kindly. Emily taps me on the shoulder and points to her watch, letting me know it's time to go.

"Riley, I need to leave now. Thank you so much for showing me your room."

"Are you going to go be a soldier now?" He asks quietly.

"No, I'm not a soldier. I'm not sure what I am yet, but that's The Forums job to figure that out. I need you to do something for me though." He waits patiently for what I have to say, a depressed look on his face. "I need you to stay brave."

"My mom and dad are brave, I'm not brave."

"Yes you are, it takes a very brave boy to let his parents go serve society. They will be home before you know it. Thank you Riley." He hugs me before grabbing Mrs. Cope's hand and waving goodbye to us as we walk back down the hallway.

"Kids are so honest." I say to Emily. Paul and Emmett are chatting behind us quietly.

"Yes they are." She says dreamily, a smile on her face; I quick my eyebrows at her in question. "Sam and I have applied."

"You're going to have a baby?"

"Well, we still have to get approved and I would have to be taken off duty. I'm trying not to get my hopes up, cause there is still a chance that we won't get approved."

"I have hope for you. I think you guys would make excellent parents." I say genuinely. She squeeze's my hand in thanks and introduces the older man standing next to my room when we turn the corner.

"Miss Bella, this is Harry Clearwater, head of royal security and personal guard to the king." She says.

He bows his head to me lowly and respectfully, as I do to him. "It is a pleasure to meet you Miss Bella, are you ready to go?"

"Am I?" I ask looking towards Emily.

"Yes Miss Bella."

"Then yes I am ready to go." I say and he leads the way down the hall and to a set of stairs behind a heavy door. We go down, then down some more until we reach to bottom where he pauses by the unmarked door.

"Before we go in there, I need to warn you that there will be an engineer traveling with us." I start to get nervous all of the sudden about meeting a stranger before I snap out of that line of thinking. "She is blunt and a bit cold, but she was handpicked by King Carlisle specifically for this task."

The door opens and Paul shouts "You've got to be kidding me, we are riding that?"

Only then do I look up and see a very old train, I think they were called subway's. Our society doesn't use them, as travel between home groups is often rare and unnecessary. Also, our home groups were efficiently designed to eliminate the need for many vehicles once used.

"Does it even run?" Paul exclaims.

"I take offense to that." A tall blonde woman appears from behind the train, wiping her hands on a rag. Her hair is long and lies on her shoulders in soft curls and she is extraordinarily clean as opposed to the ancient piece of machinery covered in all matters of filth.

She wears a navy-blue collared button-up fitted shirt filling it out fully with large breasts, and fitted black pants. Her boots go all the way up to her knees and have gems the color of sapphires embedded at the top. She is the most beautiful woman I have ever seen, and she knows how to show it. I haven't had the luxury of having a mother show me how to dress or how to feel pretty. She walks right up to Paul standing a good bit shorter than his mammoth height, puts her hands on her hips and says to him, "It runs just fine."

"Alright." He says putting his hand up in defeat, slightly amused at her forward attitude. We all walk towards the train, one of the cars doors is open and lights shine brightly from the ceiling. Sam, Quil and a recovered Jared are there waiting for us, tucking various cases of equipment below the seats.

I turn and sit down in the first seat I see and notice that Emmett is moving very slowly, his eyes glued to the woman's retreating frame. I have to lean my body around hers as she enters the train to see Emmett, still staring at her backside. She takes notice of me and whips her head around to him.

"Eyes up here pervert." She says bluntly to him, and he looks up to her face mystified, unable to talk to her.

"Easy Rosalie, he is a prince." Harry says to her, disappointment heavy in his voice. I think Mr. Harry Clearwater didn't agree with the king on his choice of engineer.

"Then he should know better." She flips her hair and walks to the front of the train, leaving us all open mouthed. Paul sits next to me and starts chuckling, which sets me off as well. Soon all of us except Emmett and Harry are laughing at Emmett's stunned face.

The doors slowly close, jumping along the rough tracks and finally coming to a close with a loud bang. "Everyone ready?" Rosalie calls from the front.

Sam yells back and I am jolted forward when the train starts moving, faster and faster until I can no longer make out the sections of concrete lining the walls of the tunnel.

"So why the train travel, is Paul too scared to fly a plane again?" I ask, having to speak loudly over the screeches of the wheels on the track and roar of the wind. I jab him in the side with my elbow, to let him know that I am joking with him.

"We are on our way to get the team's new transport." Harry says with a smirk.

Paul coughs, "Excuse me?" He says astonishingly.

"You'll see, be patient." Harry says before tipping his head onto the back of the seat and closes his eyes. The underground trip didn't take too long; no conversation was to be had with all the noise. The train came to a stop, quite loudly and Rosalie was soon opening the doors. She steps out onto the platform and holds her hand out in presentation.

"Welcome to my bunker." She says proudly.

The area in front of us is massive, very old and obviously falling apart. Vines had crept onto the walls, the sun shining down through the milky glass roof. Chunks of cement and other debris lay off to the side along with old scraps of wood.

But directly in the middle of this massive bunker was a transport like I had never seen before. Much larger than what I've seen before; shiny new and black, a stark contrast to the dirty space it is occupied in. Lots of chests of tools and machines on wheeled carts are scattered around the craft. Thick cords and piping fall from the ceiling on the edges, bundled together before splitting off to each of the machines covering the tarnished old tile floor.

And in the brightest corner, a small cot and dresser sit isolated contrasting everything else packed in the large area. A rolling bar with hanged clothes and a chest are the only things that show that someone lives here.

"Wow." Paul says breathlessly. "She's beautiful."

"My pride and joy." Rosalie says smugly, standing proudly under the craft looking up at her impressive height.

"You built this?" Emmett asks incredulously.

"Of course I built this, who else would have?" She says obviously offended by the Prince's words. I think they may have gotten off to a bad start. He must realize this as well and takes a step back before looking down towards his feet, hands sheepishly in his pockets.

Paul is stroking the underbelly of the craft lovingly, gently; fingertips barely touching her black shinny and smooth belly.

"She won't exactly be used what I had designed her for, but a necessity none the less. Just a proto-type, but she runs perfectly. Can you fly quad rotors Paul?"

"My favorite." He says brightly, licking his lips.

"You were commissioned to build this? Why?" I ask her kindly, full of curiosity.

"They wanted a larger, stealthier transport with maximum stabilization and maneuverability. I told them I could give them that. Tada!" She says and without skipping a beat she continues, "Shall we get moving?"

We loaded into the transport walking up the ramp into the rear of the craft, Rosalie was last on board after opening the large glass doors that acted as a roof for the bunker. Quil has been studying the panels since being first to step into the craft. The seating was a little different than a normal transport. Paul and Jared still sat up front, but instead of Quil sitting in a jump seat he was in a row with two seats directly behind the Pilot and Navigator. Rosalie sat next to Quil in the other spacious seat with control panels on the side. Harry, Sam, Emily and I strapped into the seats that sat perpendicular to the controller seat alongside the wall of the craft.

"I can't find the headsets Rosalie." Quil says to her, looking under his seat.

She snorts and presses a button on her side, the ramp retracts and lifts to close. "Fire it up Paul." He turns in his seat and looks at her oddly. "Just do it." She says until he then turns in his seat away from us; I can see his arms extending upward and flipping switches above him.

Tick… Tick… Tick… We hear and then a silent vibration is felt from under us.

"Wow"

"That's amazing."

"No Way."

The boys all talk at the same time. Only then do I understand that the craft is running and completely silent to us.

"She is a little louder outside but doesn't touch the noise of the transports you're used to." Rosalie says proudly. "Alright Paul take us up and go easy, she is extremely responsive, at least until you are used to the controls."

"Rosalie hand this up to Jared, it's our flight plan." Harry says handing her a sealed envelope that he produced from his breast pocket.

I could feel the craft turn after Jared and Paul had learnt of our destination and silently we flew through the air to wherever they were taking me. I hadn't been able to look outside; the craft was solid made with no windows and had to rely on my senses to know when we would be landing. We landed about half an hour after takeoff and I was ushered into a small building surrounded by thick forest. The only thing inside the small building was an elevator, in which we got into and rode down for longer than seemed possible. It opened up into an artificially lit room full of vegetation; an indoor garden. Emily looked down to a piece of paper she was holding.

"Okay this will be your room until commission is over or you are dismissed." She said walking into a modest sized room. "I'll let you unpack and then the staff will be in to explain where everything is. The team is going to fly out to get the other candidates now. Harry and I will stay with you until all the candidates are here at which time we will disappear and you will begin the commission process." She says sadly.

My brow furrows.

"I wish I could give you more advice Bella, but I do not have any more information. But I wish you the best of luck."

"Thank you Emily, it's been quite the experience. I am truly thankful that you were here to guide me through it." I say honestly holding both of her hands in mine before she turns and walks away from me.

She closes the door and I can feel the walls that have come down recently begin to build up. From the window I can see the Emily in the walking towards a set of stairs that lead to a viewing area where Harry is waiting for her.

I hope this isn't a good-bye to my new friend. And will I fear that I may never see Paul again either.

I lie down on the bed and feel my eyes get heavy. The last images in my head before I fall asleep are that of Paul, my father, and surprisingly Prince Edward.

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><p><strong>AN: Have you ever tried to write a chapter when all you can think about is writing a future scene? Ugh this one was a toughy, I had problems focusing.**

**I am proud to announce that NO ONE correctly guessed who our villain or his daughter is! So I'm doing something right, can't make the whole story predictable.**

**Review question: What do yall think of Rosalie? She was completely satisfying to write, much easier that Emmett was last chapter, perhaps its my inner bitch.**

**Reviews are like pie, I always ask for more! **


	13. Chapter 13

**I do not own Twilight, but I do own a pitbull named Bruno.**

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><p>BPOV<p>

No one had come to me before I had fallen asleep after arriving at the underground garden facility, but I hadn't thought anything odd of it. It was late when we arrived and other than crew and Prince Emmett I hadn't seen anyone else here with me so I laid my head down to sleep when the artificial lights had begun to dim. Most of the lights had shut down signaling the sun sitting and only one remained that I could see in the massive underground hall, shinning over the tops of the central row of small fruit trees like moonlight shines down upon the earth.

The morning brought the dormant lights back on and it danced through the shades of my room's window. It remind's me much of my home and how I woke up with the sun each morning; slipping on light work clothes and spending time on the roof top tending to my plants. Home seemed so far away having not seen it or my father for near eight weeks now.

I got out of bed and stretched my body and began looking around. I open drawers and find a substantial amount of clothing, various designs of skirts, shirts and pants. All things that I would expect to find in a situation like this, unlike the one style of uniform that The Forum provided. I notice all the clothes are the same color as I pull out one of the royal purple trimmed ivory shirts. Over the left breast was 'Bella' in neat script embroidery in the same royal purple as all the trim and accents. On the right sleeve was the Prime seal, a small seedling above an earth filled with roots branching off to hundreds of tiny little ends, signifying the importance of monitored genetics. The roots represent the countless combinations of carefully selected genes to form one tiny perfect seedling; the heir, each one more perfect than the last.

I let out a un-lady like snort at the ridiculous notion that I could add any improvements to the impeccable Cullen line. I start to wonder if The Forum has had a hiccup and men in shiny white coats will walk into my rooms and say "oops." The probability of that actually happening is nil, but it is still more of a possible reality than me ever becoming Prime.

I decide on an outfit to wear after going through the various drawers and cabinets, a tea length a-line skirt and a ¾ sleeved cowl neck shirt that dipped well below my comfort level exposing my breasts. After more rooting through the drawers I found a royal purple undershirt, which covered my cleavage and felt more father-approved than without. He always told me to save the things that are sacred to me and to only share them with those that I loved. I never was on the receiving end of any teasing about not participating in sexual acts like many of the young people around me were involved in, but sometimes I couldn't help feeling left out; seeing all the flirtation and smiling faces of those that partook. Not that my father would let me even entertain the thought of a boy. He often said, "Study hard now and enjoy a better life after school, it's worth it."

I miss my father terribly. They did mention to me during my latest hospital stay at the military center that my father was contacted and was inconsequentially told of my movements. I wanted to make the call myself, but due to security protocols they hadn't allowed me to. The protocols must be new for I had heard from several people from school getting calls from older siblings during their testing. Perhaps it's only in effect during commission, which makes the whole security detail feel more warranted now that I am actually in commission. Seemed silly… no it was rather scary during those first few days at the testing facility.

I'm brushing my hair when there is a knock on the door. I barely get the door cracked when a tiny woman not much older than me skips into my room and sits in one of the chairs placed next to a small table.

"Come sit," she says to me cheerfully, "we have a lot of things to go over." She is beautiful and pixie-like, with spiky brown hair, a tiny waist and sparkling eyes that are so full of life. I smile at her as I walk over instantly feeling happy while approaching her tiny body bouncing in excitement.

"You are Bella, and I am Alice." She says excitedly, and continues on without letting me greet her, but I just smile and nod my head in the appropriate parts. "Welcome to the nursery, now home to commission, which is entirely unusual. I had heard that it would be held in the capital but has since been changed and now the garden's have been run over by good looking me in black uniforms… I love a man in uniform." She pauses momentarily before beginning again.

"I see you found all the clothing, did you need any other items for bathing?" I shake my head. "Good, did you bring any oil with you?"

I must have paused too long or had a confused look on my face because she corrected herself almost immediately. "Your ovulation interruption liniment, O.I.L, oil… you do take it right?"

"Yes, but no I didn't bring any." Oil for short was the pregnancy prevention medication that we were given to use daily, single packaged doses of an oily cream that we rub under our breasts each morning.

"Good, The Forum has requested you stop using it now that you have been selected."

"Why?" I ask quickly before she has the chance to start talking again.

"So your body has time to prepare for a possible pregnancy of course." She says matter-of-factly to me with much more enthusiasm then I would use discussing this subject.

"I'm only 17 years old." I state mostly to myself as I let this information sink in. I never thought that children would be so near in the future for me or anyone my age.

"The Prime must bear an heir, which is your job." She asserts soundly slightly offended.

"I apologize for my candor, but I am not the Prime, nor will I be. I do not possess the qualities good enough to be Prime and I think it's extraordinarily unnecessary for me to be a part of commission. Therefore, I see no reason to stop using the oil." I finish out of breath.

She stares at me in wonder, silently pondering what I said with fierce curiosity lighting up her features.

In a softer more intimate tone she places her hand on my arm and states "I don't know who will be Prime, and I am just here to walk you through this crazy process. You've had an insane last couple weeks and I hope that you will feel comfortable here. I will always be here to answer any questions or lend an ear if you should need to talk. Take a deep breath and let's just take one step at a time, okay?"

"Yeah, okay. I'm sorry again." I say ashamed.

"Nothing to be sorry about Bella," she says calmly, "Are you ready to continue?" I nod my head and her bubbly position is back when she speaks again.

"There will be nine more girls selected for commission arriving today. Everyone will be introduced tomorrow during our first session. We will discuss things and you will be able to ask questions as we go. Today you may wander this section of the nursery if you would like, or stay here in your room."

"May I help with the gardening?" I ask semi-hopeful. She looks down at her paperwork for a few moments.

"Oh yes!" She says excitedly. "You have a job already at home? That's a very generous and sacrificial thing you are doing for society."

"I just want to do my part." I say honestly.

"If you have any questions feel free to ask any of the gardeners if you need help with something, they will be in this awful shade of green that I am wearing." It truly is awful on her and I let out a small giggle at her obvious disgust. Her small stature paired with the color reminds me of a character in a children's book that I used to read about a fairy so small she was dressed in clothing made of leaves.

"You are not a gardener then?"

"Blessed Rebirth no." She exclaims. "I don't know exactly what I am. I've been waiting for two years before I was assigned commission coordinator. And seeing as how this is a temporary job, who knows where I will end up. But seeing as we are hiding out in the nursery they thought it would be good for me to dress the part, for security reasons."

"I understand." I say with a smile on my face.

"I think we are going to be good friends Bella. But for now relax, go play with the plants or whatever it is that you do with them. Tomorrow we will get started."

"Thank you Alice." And just like she floated into my room she left the same way.

Trying not to be overly excited I wait five minutes before venturing out to the gardens, which are absolutely spectacular. Built inside a massive cave the gardens run down the middle of the long cavity to which I cannot see another end. Small fruit trees are placed in the center and small plants are cascaded down in a slope with the smallest of plants in the front row, strawberries with ripe fruit ready to be picked. I approach a gardener with a pleasant smile on my face.

"Excuse me, I've been allowed to help with the gardening, is there anything in particular that you would like me to work on?"

"Oh goodness, you must be Bella. Alice just told me you would probably make it out here to help. I am Siobhan, and over there is Maggie."

"It's nice to meet you."

"Pleasure is all mine, honestly… they've kicked all the men out to another garden and left us shorthanded for the time being, so I'm glad that you are here and willing."

She lists off a few things that need done and I get to work as carefully as I can, trying not to dirty my casual clothes.

I watch as Alice escorts more girls to the four remaining rooms on my level and the five on the level above me. Each girl goes in and none come out; which is disappointing, I was hoping to get some company today. But surprisingly the day goes quickly by and Alice comes to tell me that it's time to turn down.

**~*MoH*~**

After showering and dressing into a similar modest outfit as yesterday I venture out to the large area next to the gardens where a circle of eleven chairs have been arranged. Alice is the only one sitting in a chair and is engrossed as I walk up and take the seat to her left.

"May I sit here?"

"Good morning Bella, of course you may." She goes back to her reading and I am content to watch the mists fall down over the gardens in the bright light of the morning. I got lost in the beauty of the gardens for several minutes before Alice's fidgeting and impatient huffing garnered my attention.

"Come on girls we don't have all day." Alice yelled. I failed to notice that not a single other girl had ventured out to sit with us. Alice's shout was loud and piercing and traveled far and the girls started coming out of their rooms one by one.

I smiled kindly to everyone that sat down but I received mixed attitudes in return. One girl glared at me when I said a quiet good morning to her. I kept my mouth shut after that. I didn't see a reason for any of us to treat each other badly so I kept a smile on my face, forced as it were.

"Welcome ladies, I know who you are and you know me, but you don't know each other. Let's take a minute to go around and introduce yourselves and give us a quick thought on how you are feeling about commission." She nudged the girl sitting on her right.

"My name is Tanya and I'm excited to be here," she said happily. Tanya was beautiful, much like the other girls here and more than I. Her long blonde hair was curled and laid elegantly on her shoulders above her amply displayed breasts. Taking a look around the room I realized that all of the girls were beautiful and most of them dressed to accentuate their bodies. There was altogether more cleavage than I thought required.

"I'm Irina and I'm also excited to be here."

"My name is Kate, and while I don't think that I will be Prime I think it will be a fun experience." She says with a smug look. I feel instantly drawn to her, she seems playful like Paul or Emmett… Prince Emmett. Getting close to the prince has made me loose all sense of decency and I hope I remember how I was brought up as a child in the future. Though I find it hard to reason that I would ever be in contact with The Prince again, I'll be going home soon.

Irina seemed friendly, blonde just like Tanya and Kate, but Kate has a way about her; how she looks around the room at her competition, not maliciously… but like an adventurous game. Kate has straight honey blonde hair that falls down below her breasts, also big gorgeous eyes with luscious lashes. Her lips are plump and she has a mischievous presence.

"I'm Jane." The next girl says very quietly, blonde hair pulled tightly into a bun on the crown of her head. "I'm very nervous in new situations." _I know how you feel girl._

Heidi says her greeting next and I am offended the most by her out of all the girls so far. She reminds me of the girls that are promiscuous back at school. Her makeup is heavy and tasteless and her mahogany hair curled and sprayed to stiffness. Her outfit modified to show absolutely too much skin, belly button pierced and fully on display. Her breasts are being shoved into a shirt three sizes too small and inside a bra that looks two sizes too small, which is also visible outside of her shirt. I guess the skirt could be considered a micro skirt but doesn't look big enough to properly cover a five year old. If this is to be our new Prime, Blessed Rebirth help us all.

One of the girls closer to me raises an eyebrow towards Heidi, perhaps having the same thoughts as I am; I keep my face amiable. Next to Heidi a brown haired girl locks eyes with the girl with the scowl; her body turned defensively in-front of Heidi. "My name is Chelsea, I won't be Prime but I would like to go into securities." Heidi smirks and looks towards the now cowering girl and gives Chelsea a pat on the back.

"I'm Jessica," the next girl says excitedly, "I'm so excited to be here and this is going to be so much fun." She practically shouts out, nearly falling out of her seat when she bounces too much; I smile at her enthusiasm.

The eyebrow girl literally pushes up her breasts with her two hands, puffs up her chest and flips her long brown curly hair behind her back before starting her greeting. "My name is Lauren and I _will_ be Prime, so you ladies may as well go home now." Scoffs and looks of disbelief ring out around the group, but I'm careful not to let my face fall however.

Next is Tia who says her name quietly, head down and hands down in a very submissive pose. And then the entire group is looking at me, which to be honest is a bit unnerving but I only let it bother me for a few brief moments before smiling brightly and addressing the group.

"My name is Bella and I do not believe that I have the necessary requirements to be Prime, but I am glad to be able to make new friends." Why be unpleasant? This ordeal will be over soon and then I can go home, so I am going to try to make the best of it. I try to keep my smile on my face and connect with each girl, but Lauren talks under her breath and Jessica giggles next to her at whatever she said. I falter and then look towards Alice.

Alice has a look of amazement on her face, her body turns to me and she disguises her tiny face with her hand and mouths "really?" towards me and then quickly moves her hand to play with her hair. "Okay, so the first phase of this commission is societal skills. You will all be observed during sessions on how well your social skills are. You will be put into situations where you will be judged on how well you handle and solve the tasks. Until you are called feel free to socialize and take advantage of the gardens, Maggie and Siobhan can help you if you should want to help out. I'll be talking to you girls individually throughout the day to make sure that you have everything that you need."

I am the only one to actually help out in the gardens and I get lost for the remainder of the day in the work. It's calming, peaceful and most of all rewarding. At home my small garden only benefits a few families in my group, but this garden is obviously a capital garden. Each strawberry that I pick and put into the hand sized re-usable containers makes me feel more satisfied. I wonder who would be eating these, perhaps members of The Forum or the engineers in the tall buildings in capital central. Siobhan silently takes my tray of packaged strawberries and leaves me with an empty one with a polite smile.

Alice comes to me sometime later and sits on a bench close to where I am working and quietly watches me work. Her head tilts side to side with curiosity while she observes me. I raise my eyes in question but still she says nothing to me. After a small amount of time passes I feel the need to fill the void.

"I know I should be getting to know the other girls, and perhaps I would if they were willing to help. Siobhan had said that the men were not allowed to work in this section while we occupy it and it has left them with only a small percentage of their staff here. I want to help and they can certainly use it. It's not like I will be Prime anyway I might as well not waste time while I'm here."

Alice smiles wide with eyes closed, she takes a deep breath before opening them. "Perhaps you would like some help?"

"Help would be tremendous." I say to her sincerely.

"I'll let you handle that." She says openly and begins to walk away. "Do you need anything Bella?" she asks looking over her shoulder.

"No I'm quite comfortable with the items provided."

"I knew you would be." She says loudly as she gets further away.

Great tactic Miss Alice, not only did I divulge unneeded information, I also got tricked into socializing with the girls. I stand and brush myself off and begin to survey the girls that are sitting in the common area.

Tonya, Kate and Irina are sitting together at one table and talking animatedly to each other. Jane, Heidi and Chelsea are sitting on a group of couches laughing much like I do when I watch my father cook. Jessica and Lauren are standing on the outer edge and pointing and giggling at the other groups of girls. And Tia sits alone on a park bench, reading a book under the last tree in the long line. She is a small girl with black shiny hair framing an oval face; eyes set apart with a strong straight nose and lips the color of crimson. She looks smaller than what she truly is; sitting hunched, legs tucked underneath her, head down unnaturally. She reads with her eyes pointing upwards and ultimately hiding behind her book.

I walk swiftly towards my target and sit next to her. "Hello Tia." She jumps and cowers away from me momentarily.

"You're Bella right?" She says quietly.

"Yes, I was wondering if you would like to help me with the garden work."

"I'm sorry but I do not know how." She says softly before putting her head back into her book.

"I can teach you, it's quite easy." I say gently to her. She regards me carefully for a few moments from the side of her eye, head never moving from her book before nodding and standing with me.

I show her what I am doing, and which fruits are ready to be picked and how to package. She works quietly, her body relaxing gradually. I'm glad that she is able to relax, I find gardening serene.

"What occupies your time at home Tia?" I ask after half an hour of silence.

"My father… is very strict. I only do what he tells me to do." She says reluctantly, I frown and feel obligated to let the subject fall when she speaks again with a small smile. "I like to read though."

"I like to read too." I say kindly and her head drops again to the plants below us, this time with a smile on her face. I'll take pride on this small victory and take a moment appreciate my loving and supportive father.

Just like the silence that Alice offered me earlier that made me talk, Tia speaks out as well. "I have nightmares sometimes."

I cannot respond or rather I do not know how to respond to that. I cannot fathom what this girl has gone through to end up like the way she is, a shell—going through life floating around on her father's breath. I do not want her to see the pity that I have for her so I nod my head, keep my face emotionless and begin to work again, intimidated by the dark subject matter. We work in silence again for a good amount of time when she abruptly stands up, says thank you and walks back to her room, book in hand.

What an interesting day.

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><p><strong>AN: HIYA GUYS, missed yall so much. Summer is crazy, but I'm back and should have lots of writing time in the near future.**

**So who's your pick for the villain's daughter now? Which btw Villain and daughter have not be guessed, but little hints and clues will be dropped along the way.**

**Next up is either more commission, or Emmett's unusual sex education taught by Paul, haven't completely decided yet.**

**Question of the Day: Would you protest just like Bella did about her birth control?**


	14. Chapter 14

**I do not own anything, but I do have a snuggly pitbull!**

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><p><strong>EmPOV<strong>

The security crew had flown all day yesterday transporting the collection to the underground gardens. After Bella had been taken in two days prior, I had been escorted in the back way into the observation room on the third level that overlooked the common area that the girls would share. Bella had spent most of that day and yesterday tending to the gardens, a pleasant smile on her face.

In the time that had passed these weeks since the transport accident, they had been able to renovate the old gardeners' barracks for the needs of commission. The nursery we set in an old underground salt mine, and with technological advances in strength material the mine was able to be dug out to a massive size. Large artificial lights were added to simulate sunlight and now the gardens serve the majority of the capital. The barracks on this side of the facility hadn't been used in forty years, and needed badly renovated. And due to the unusual location the durable, versatile and transportable building method that had been applied to our life long ago could not be used and they had to resort to basic construction techniques.

The first underground facility that had been constructed for commission was scraped. The transport bomb went off far to close and everyone involved thought that it would be too risky to take them there should there be another attack. This time around, only a few have knowledge of when and where commission is being conducted.

The fear that has been created deep within me by these deliberate attacks is disturbing. I haven't been able to talk to Harry or my father, so I don't know if these are common occurrences. I have never heard of such things happening, but then again my parents had always done a great job of keeping the few surly things that still happen in this world away from my brothers and me.

The observation room that I am in doesn't have separate rooms, rather just one large space with a low ceiling. There are several cot-like beds, one that I have taken post along the back wall. In the center, there is a round conference table with modern visual equipment. The one side is a small kitchen and massive cabinetry holding supplies that might be required for the girls. And the front wall or window rather, is as wide of the space we are in minus the door that leads to the steps down to the gardens. I've been sitting in a chair watching Bella closely, fearing that another accident might happen.

She is an extremely trusting person and I hope that she doesn't react badly when she finds out the truth about her unfortunate time while away from home. Perhaps we will make Edward tell her when she becomes Prime.

She will be Prime; it's a 95% certain at this point according to The Forum. She tested a match for Edward at 87% whereas the next closest match for him was only 47%. All the girls tested of course had to have certain genetic qualities that The Forum predicted would improve the royal line. And now I was waiting on The Forum officers to arrive so that they can start their first session.

They arrive quickly, looking haggard in the pre-dawn hours, lack of sleep or Paul's eccentric flying skills to blame, which one of them I'm not sure. The Forum officers, my father, Harry, Sam and I all take seats at the table. The rest of the security team is wondering around the room, Paul and Jared getting coffee, Emily and Kim tidying up the space.

Sitting on a cot, back against the wall arms crossed is Rosalie. She is the most beautiful woman that I have ever seen. And I was a complete moron when we first met, now she holds so much disdain for me, she sits glaring at me right now.

"Let's start gentlemen," one forum officer states. I nod my head as does Harry and Sam.

"There is only one reasonable match for Prince Edward and allowing him to view picture cards of her has confirmed this as well. They haven't met yet, but they are both physically attracted to each other. During her testing we added Prince Edward to the group of pictures that she was shown during the raw emotions test and she became aroused quite quickly. And per Prince Emmett's accounts, Prince Edward has a similar response as far as we can tell.

"We did have some concerns with her confidence and lack of trust she holds for commission. She has shown that she believes in our society fully and trusts in The Forum greatly, but doesn't believe that she should be a candidate for commission. We have chosen the worst candidates for Prince Edward as possible to join her in hopes that she will realize that she may be better suited for Prime than any other."

"Won't that just make her more skeptical about the effectiveness of The Forum? She already sees herself as a poor candidate, if she feels superior to them how will that make her feel about the future of our society?" I ask.

"She has excellent reasoning skills and is able to work through complex logical problems; we hold high faith that she will figure it out all on her own. We as The Forum and the King have both expressed an incessant demand that a Prime be crowned as quickly as possible. Intelligence officers among The Forum are concerned with recent events and chatter within the cells of the outland borders. While the threat is still being evaluated we are hoping to crown a new Prime before a public event could happen. The Society as a whole is always strongest during commission and the creation of new leaders thereafter.

"We must push Bella to believe in herself and reinsure that she is the best possible person to bear the next heir. We have brought in Miss Alice Brandon to be Commission Coordinator, who has been discovered to have precognitive advanced brain function. She is extremely perceptive and has tested well in social therapy applications. She also happens to be an excellent match for Prince Jasper which is why she hasn't been placed anywhere yet.

"This is confidential Prince Emmett and you must hold this information in higher regard than your familial connections." He says turning to me.

"Yes sir." I respond firmly.

"We will observe the morning introductions with the candidates and then have a sit down with Miss Alice. She must not know of the favorability of Miss Bella before the appropriate time, this is imperative."

We break our discussion when we hear someone shouting below. I walk to the windows and see that a small woman with brown spiky hair sitting next to Bella. Bella is dressed in Ivory and it suits her much better than the white of The Forum or the black military clothing that I had become used to see her wearing. After all the things that she had been through recently and how she kept positive and mostly un-phased by all of it, cements all hope that she will be my next queen.

I just wish she would realize it too.

One by one the girls parade out to the circle of chairs, and I say parade because the amount of makeup and inappropriate clothing they are wearing should be used only for a special occasion, if ever. They must think that they are meeting the Prince today and want to entice him with their sexual bodies, I hope. Meanwhile Bella sits back straight, knees together, legs crossed at the ankle wearing modest clothing that makes her look respectable. A smile stays on her face despite some unkind glances coming her way.

Alice goes through a quick introduction, and then the girls one by one introduce themselves. "Where did you guys find these girls?" Harry asks out loud. All of us are astonished by the lack of decency some of these girls have.

"Some of them are truly the worst candidates possible for Prince Edward, but all showed desire for him. Some of the girls needed additional observation before placement. Take Chelsea for example, she has uncanny characteristics for personal security, but we had concerns about social loyalties. Tia the quiet black haired young lady is extremely well studied, but he father has been very strict with her and she has lost the ability to make decisions on her own. We are hoping that the interaction with Miss Alice can help her. She may be a good choice to be purposely matched, perhaps a gentlemen that is kind and loving."

"Interesting," I say, because it truly is, using commission to iron out details of not only Miss Bella's shortcomings, but also of others. As Delegate to commission for my brother I was able to read reports on past commissions. They've done things like this before, but none had been so decided from the beginning about one candidate over another. Even my father's commission wasn't like this. My mother and one other had been close competitors, but as soon as my father was allowed one on one counseling time with them, my mother won is heart.

The group splits up and immediately Bella begins to work in the massive gardens, sitting down with her legs tucked back behind her. The other girls split up into groups and begin chatting with each other, with Tia as the exception. She is alone on a bench and reading a book, withdrawn so far into herself she looks like a small child hiding behind the big book.

Alice flits around and talks to each girl privately, sometimes writing down a long list of things, others just a few things. Lastly she skips over to Bella and without saying a word sits near her and observes her. Bella gives her a kind smile and continues working.

Fifteen minutes pass before Bella seems to have hit a breaking point and explains herself to Alice. I press a button on the monitors and focus the audio to Alice and Bella so that we can hear their conversation.

"… only a small percentage of their staff here. I want to help and they can certainly use it. It's not like I will be Prime anyway. I might as well not waste time while I'm here." I hear Bella explain to Alice, head down working diligently.

Alice takes a minute to respond seeming to have to think about what to say next. Her eyes are closed and a broad smile on her face. "Perhaps you would like some help?"

"Help would be tremendous," Bella is excited.

"I'll let you handle that." Alice says to her cryptically. "Do you need anything Bella?"

"No I'm quite comfortable with the items provided."

"I knew you would be," Alice responds loudly and knowingly still walking away. She continues walking away from the gardens and I know that she is heading towards the stairs. I stand up to greet her when she walks in, unfolding a paper.

"Good Day Gentlemen, Prince Emmett." She says to us walking to the table with a certain seat picked out. Just before she sits down she whips her head around to look towards the back wall and stares at Rosalie very curiously her head tilting to the side. She lightly walks over to Rosalie, who is sitting in near the same position as she has been all morning. Back against the wall, legs out and crossed, arms crossed in defense. As Alice walks over Rosalie's scowl gradually turns into a curious look.

"I'm Alice it's a pleasure to meet you," she says sticking her hand out for Rosalie to shake.

"I'm Rose," She responds taking her hand confidently. Alice closes her eyes and I can hear her gasp for air. Her look of shock slowly slides into a brilliant smile and then she turns and locks eyes with me.

"Very exciting," she says to herself and takes a seat at the table after walking back over.

One of The Forum members is smirking, which I find unique. Many members of The Forum are emotionless and nameless souls, preferring to believe to live as one body. Massive amounts of people to form one large brain. They are friendly and polite, but having a knowing smile such as his strikes me as odd.

"What have you seen Miss Alice?" He asks her, and she eyes him carefully before replying.

"Many great things, sir," she says cryptically.

"Will you not give us a peek?"

"No sir, I wouldn't want to alter what is to come. You certainly can appreciate that, can't you sir?"

"Aye Miss Alice, keep your secrets if no harm is come of the people."

Emily and Kim join us at the table and Alice slides a list over to them, "Would you ladies help me with this, there are some very needy girls down there." She states annoyed and glares momentarily at the three Forum members present. Both girls get up and begin pulling items out of the cabinets.

"When would you like to begin testing the girls?" Alice asks getting straight down to business.

"We are truly only interested in a few of the girls; Chelsea, Tia, Kate and Heidi. So we will closely monitor them, all the others can run through the virtual programs too, but will only be monitored for red flags."

"You're not interested in Bella?" Alice asks defensively. I put my head down and pretend I'm reading something in the packet that is placed in front of me.

"Not at this time." He states firmly, ending the line of discussion.

Her brow furrows and she has to shake her head a bit before getting back on topic.

"Are you going to be here, or are you going to be remote?"

"Remote."

"Okay we'll start tomorrow, I assume we would like to do the virtual test quickly?" Alice asks.

"Yes, have the girls I named off go first incase the program changes and requires extra time of them." Alice knows that something is up, and I'm a terrible liar, so I pretend as best as I can that everything is fine and continue to avoid eye contact.

Alice ponders for a minute before leaving out an exasperated sigh and says, "Okay."

"Miss Alice, I don't see Bella's list of items." Emily says, obviously not hearing the conversation that Alice had with Bella downstairs.

"Bella's a gem, hard working, sacrificial and she lives by society's rules to a T. She requested no additional items that weren't provided. The only thing that she has ever acted out on was when I mentioned to her yesterday about stopping the use of the oil."

"Why didn't she want to stop?" I ask.

"She was quite adamant that she will not be Prime and that there is no reason to stop."

"I see." One of the officers gives me a knowing look and I nod my head in agreement.

"Well since this is all ready, we can help take these down Miss Alice," Kim says to her obviously trying to change the subject. With a nod from The Forum members Miss Alice, Kim and Emily take the boxes of supplies that the girls requested down to the floor levels.

I peek out the window and see that Bella has taken up work with the gardens and is quietly showing Tia how to pick and package the strawberries. The other girls are huddled in small groups chatting, some quietly and others rather obnoxiously.

"Prince Emmett, we should discuss what you will need to accomplish during commission." I turn to face them again and nod my head for The Forum member to continue. "You should spend most of your time here, and we would like to be counseled regularly from an outsider's prospect. Miss Alice will have her hands full so we would like you to observe when the girls are being engaged. How do they behave with the others, do they have any behavioral tendencies that may need to be appraised, and those types of things. Watch out particularly for malicious behavior, which will not be tolerated."

"Yes Sir," I respond.

"When you are not here there are a few tasks that you will need to accomplish. The first one needs to be rather soon so you can counsel your brother as part of your role as Delegate. Since you are not married you will need to be taught sexual education, including pleasure for women. Usually the Delegate is a married person and uses personal experience as a guide but since you have none will need to carefully advise a way for you to do this."

I blush at the candid way he is speaking to me, monotone voice and no facial expression; like it's the most normal thing in the world. I hadn't thought of this aspect directly, only personal curiosity before. I guess that if we want an heir we can't have my brother going in blind.

I can't decide if this is a bad thing or a good thing. I imagine this will be embarrassing and eye-opening for both of us, but I can't help getting excited at the fact that this will be quite a fun thing to talk to Edward about. He is shy, and gets flustered over such simple topics like talking to a girl. I can't wait to tell him how to pleasure a woman.

My thoughts turn inappropriately towards Rosalie, and how I would love to give her great pleasure. I don't let my thoughts wander long before I put a stop to them, I will still need to go through a commission myself and it's unfair to be thinking of any woman that won't be my bride.

"We haven't come up with a solution yet but I assure you that we will and notify you as soon as possible."

Harry clears his throat gaining the attention of all of us. "If I may make a suggestion, why don't you have Paul take Emmett down to a Magnet house and give him some instruction and education?"

"What?" I shout rather loudly, "You can't expect me to be seen in one of those places."

"We can arrange a level of discretion, or perhaps a private lesson at the palace."

"I'm sure that a casual sex lesson in the palace will not go over well with the queen." My dad smirks. "I won't even mention that you suggested that Harry." He laughs quietly lost in thought.

"Okay so that might not be a good idea, but I think someone such as Paul can more than educate him. They are the same age, so they avoid some awkwardness, better than learning it from you Sire."

Dad faces the forum members, "I think it is a reasonable suggestion. We would have to deal with security, perhaps find a remote location safer for Prince Emmett. But I've heard that Paul is well experienced. It would be more educational than a classroom sitting."

The Forum members quietly discuss the proposal before speaking up together. "That is acceptable."

Harry walks back into the depths of the room where Paul is sitting at a table reading a paper and drinking coffee.

"Prince Edward will also need to take on more responsibility as ruler for the time being for preparations sake in case something should happen to you sire." My father nods and The Forum members turn back to me. "He will need to be kept up on what is happening during commission. No information about the girls should be given, only what tasks they are being provided and what type of conditions they are placed in. When Prince Edward comes for his one on one counseling sessions with the girls, he must not be biased with them, regardless of his immediate choice and our recommendations for Prime. This is not only a matter to decide our next queen but all the data will be used to make decisions for future commissions."

"Society changes and we must change with it." The three members say in unison, with more passion than I've ever seen one display, like a prayer.

"That will be done." I say to them, and like some magical queue signaled the end of the meeting The Forum members stood together and headed towards the exit. They passed Harry on his way back to the table, a large grin covering his face.

"Paul is more than happy to give you some education." I look towards Paul who is readying to fly The Forum members back to the Capital and he has a big smirk and gives me a thumbs-up before turning towards the door and letting out a laugh and walks out Rosalie right behind him.

"Well that should be interesting." I say to myself, which in turn makes me father guffaw.

"It will be interesting indeed my son. And I'm sure you will be able to help Jasper along as well."

"Have you heard from him?"

"No son, and we won't for some time. Harry said his contact at the facility informed him that Jasper was exceeding expectations and will be brilliant and much needed for Society."

"Good good, I miss him," I say proudly of my brother.

"I do too son, let's go observe the girls until Paul gets back then we can ride back to the Capital together."

**~*MOH*~**

When Paul made it back, we quickly prepared for our trip back to the Capital. Paul chatted much to my chagrin about our upcoming trip to the magnet house, Rosalie glaring at me the whole time. My father found this rather amusing and chuckled most of the trip, speaking up here and there to make my embarrassment worse. Only when Paul mentioned that I will truly know how to pleasure a woman at the end of my _education_ did the air in the transport change. My dad had a far-away look to him, seeming lost in thought. Quil looked rather pleased with his dials, and Rosalie began fidgeting in her seat and refused to make eye contact with me. That confused me, I was sure that she hated me but in those moments before we landed, she looked heavy with desire.

I have much to learn about women it seems. I huff in annoyance and close my eyes until I feel the transport gently touch down at the Palace.

Edward showing much of his young age can be seen from a distance running towards us as we depart from the transport. He is out of breath when he gets to us and has to take a moment to catch up, hands on his knees breathing loudly.

"So?" He asks impatiently after I look down to him amused.

"Commission has started, but you need to keep quiet about it, there are security concerns."

"Okay I can do that, what can you tell me?" He asks as we walk behind my father and enter the palace. My father continues on presumably to go see my mother, and my baby brother and I settle down on a couch in the media room.

"All the girls have been transported and are settling in. They are using an underground Capital garden for commission. I've never seen anything like it, it's very beautiful. The girls are using old miner's quarters as their own to live in."

"Why there?" He asks me.

"It's all very secretive. After the other security issues The Forum went into full black mode and only a few people know the actual location. It's more safety for the girls."

"Okay, I understand that. What next?" He doesn't allow much time to pass after I speak, obviously eager for information.

"They will start doing some social testing, to see if they can handle different situations. They are also observing their social skills within the small group. I however have to go get some education myself, so that I may advise you."

"What kind of…"

"Don't ask." I interrupt him; I would rather have this conversation only once.

"Okay, anything else you can tell me?"

"Not really, it's the first full day so not much is going on. I'll be back there in a few days and hopefully I will be able to give you some more information."

He sighs, "Okay, one more question?" I nod for him to continue. "Is she there, did she make it?"

"Who?" I ask.

"You know who." He grits his teeth at me.

"Oh I know who, but what gave you the inclination that I would tell you?" I give him a knowing look.

"I didn't think you would, but I had hoped that you would give me some kind of clue." He said disappointed.

"Cheer up brother! You're going to get a wife soon."

And then it will be my turn.

Shit.

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><p><strong>AN: Wow its been awhile. I could give you a million excuses as to why I haven't written in a while, but I won't. :P**

**Next up, education for all. And evil bitches!**

**Question of the day: How would you like Paul giving you sex lessons?**

**My answer: Where the do I sign up!**


	15. Chapter 15

**All mistakes are my own.**

**I do not own twilight, but I do own a game called Frozen Trouble that my children make me play, twice a day.**

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><p>?POV<p>

Today they are letting us make calls home before we start the first round of testing. I have no want or need to call, but I know that if I don't Father will be mad, and it might raise red flags.

I make the call and have to sit and listen to him breath in the communicator until he greets me. He knows it's me; the secure call would only come from me. It's an intimidation method, and it works on me as my brow glistens with sweat, my knees get weak. I can withstand so much from others but my Father is my tormentor, I will always fear him.

"Tell me, does the lion still walk?" He says lowly, patiently.

"Yes Sir."

"And does my alligator hide in the water?" He asks with a sick amusement.

"Yes, waiting patiently."

"Not too patiently I hope. I think we need to lure the lion to the watering hole. Why don't you start laying some seeds of doubt? I think we should start with the mother, don't you think?"

"Whatever you wish Sir."

"That's a good little alligator." He says in mock praise. "I love having my wicked plans, but I do miss _my_ _own_ little watering hole. I enjoy the way it screams out when it's full." He lets out a devilish laugh. My body tenses up at the thought of him torturing me more. He does it on purpose of course; he loves to see me uncomfortable. My mother just watches on, I fear that she too goes through what I do. But he isn't public about it with her as he is me. I'm sure given the proper incentive he would hand me over to his men in a heartbeat and enjoy watching them do whatever their evil heart's desire.

I have to please father though, he could do so much worse to me. I will never be able to run far enough away from him, or hide deep enough in a hole, he would always find me. Then I would find myself in one of his _lessons_.

I can't let her be named Prime. My very existence depends on it.

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><p><strong>AN : This is probably the last time you will hear from ?POV I have the next chapter half-done and am going to work on it tonight.**

**Reviews are like milkshakes. I always ask for extra whipped cream, how about an extra review.**

**Question of the day: If this person should be caught, what punishment do you think they should have, of course in our little society world?  
><strong>**Skies the limit.**


	16. Chapter 16

**I do not own twilight, but I do own a snow shovel that hardly every gets used. I don't mind the snow on my sidewalks :P**

**All mistakes are my own!**

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><p><strong>EPOV<strong>

I had just finished a long day shadowing my father, King Carlisle around the palace. I really hadn't realized how much my parents do for Society. He had meeting after meeting, and a stack of reports to go over today; and he did it all calmly, with grace and a smile on his face.

The Forum made most of the changes and laws in our world, and they used data to make those decisions. Data that was collected from countless things; weather patterns, crop forecasts, intelligence testing, sales data, travel requests and many more situations. The purpose of having a royal family was for the people to have a bridge to the lawmakers. My father was that bridge. He gets to meet with the people, hear their wants and desires and get firsthand knowledge of what is working and what is not. He reads the reports that The Forum sends of what they think should be changed and decides if he should intervene or advise revisions for the benefit of our citizens. My mother often helped as her right, but mostly only when dad wanted to practice medicine.

He did that often enough to stay up-to-date on current medical procedures and he said it was a great way to get a sense of the people. He and Harry, his personal guard, spent afternoons at the clinic in the Capital, treating all matters of people, no matter what job they were aligned with or what age they were.

I can't imagine how he had time to get it all done and still manage to spend so much time with us as children. As kids he was always around when it mattered; we ate all meals together and if we wanted him for something he was always quick to come. Mom mostly stayed close to us, tutoring us in what she could, mainly when we were younger. She left the more difficult subjects to our tutors stating that we need to learn from others as well. "I won't always be around to hold your hand and teach you something, you have to learn to trust others."

Now that we were older, especially since I came of age, Mom seems to have a lot of free time on her hands and has been trying to fill the void with various community projects. I have a feeling that since the order of succession has been decided that she is just buying time until she has fat grandbabies to spoil. That thought brings a smile to my face.

Being that I am only 18 the idea of kids should scare me, I think. But the thought of finding a wife and having children excites me, and my brothers feel the same way. We have no ill feelings to each other of the way the succession turned out, and I hope that my commission passes quickly so that my brother's may find their happiness soon after me.

I miss Jasper greatly; he has been gone for almost three months now. He was always around before, helping me with my history assignments, reminding me to be kind to others, or beating me in the many intelligence and strategy games that The Forum provided him to keep busy. He and Emmett had been shadowing Dad and taking over small amounts of work from him, and now that responsibility lies on my shoulders alone, since Emmett has been traveling about and Jasper already knows what his sacrifice for society is and has left for training.

Scary I know, to think just a man—still a boy really, barely of age will be the future king. I hope that a lot of time passes before that comes, I would truly miss my father and I hope I have many more years of his guidance. I'm more scared of ruling our people than I am of getting married—I'm excited for that to happen. I understand that it won't be a fairy tale and sometimes marriages are difficult—especially a matched one as mine, but I don't feel whole right now. I feel broken or incomplete, and my other half is out there waiting to fill the emptiness deep within me.

After my father released me for the day, I think of my mystery girl #172 from the picture cards Emmett showed me as I walk the halls of the palace. She is so gorgeous; I look at her picture every day, almost every moment that I can sneak away with it. I keep it hidden in my room because I know I'm not supposed to have it, Emmett let me keep it and I can't thank him enough. I feel whole when I look at her. In the back of my mind I try to remember that she may not be suitable for this life and I may have another wife. The Forum will decide who I shall marry and it will be the best fit, but I truly hope that it is her; I don't even know if she made the cut for commission. I know nothing of her except the pureness of her eyes and that will have to be enough for now. Commission can be long and drawn out and I must wait. Wait for either outcome, the one where #172 becomes my wife or I get another woman to rule by my side and bear my children. I instantly feel shame when I think about the disappointment I would feel should she not be selected. This isn't healthy and I vow to sit my father and Emmett down to confess my obsession.

I walk into the palace's media room, a place where we can relax as a family. It's an intimate space, with dark spot-light lit walls, no windows and comfortable sitting in several spots. The rest of the palace is fairly modest, mostly used for business associated with ruling, as is our personal quarters which are small and purposeful. The media room however is above normal accommodations. It's a place that we can relax, play games, watch old movies and forget that we are royals and be a normal family for a couple hours a day.

Emmett is sitting on the couch when I walk in. He turns his head and nods in greeting when he hears me enter.

"You look exhausted," he says to me.

"Yes, dad kept me very busy today. I never realized all the work he does." I say astonished.

"The work _you_ will have to do, little brother. Now that the succession has been decided, you will take on more and more of the ruling as time passes." He says to me in that big brother tone that he uses with me. Jasper does it too, mostly when teaching me something, or reminding me of my behavior.

"I know, and I can do it. I just didn't think I was going to get thrown into it so early. I thought I would have time with my wife before settling in to reign."

"It's a distraction method I think. Now that your studies are over, you are of age and have been tested, you don't have anything to do—I'm sure Dad will back off again once you've had a chance to learn enough. You will just sit around and wallow about your upcoming marriage otherwise."

"I do that anyway, thought about it all day in fact. Don't you? I mean I have been waiting for this, been prepared for this for a lot of time now. Just wish I could meet her, bed her and be done with it."

Emmett laughs loudly at this. "Yes, I do think of it often, but you need to focus. And what do you know of bedding a woman?" he asks.

My cheeks flame and I try to put my head down. "Nothing beyond our basic anatomy lessons, I just know that I have to do it. What do you know?"

"A little more than you, but that will change soon. I have to get educated so that I may educate you." He said with amusement.

"What do you mean educate?" I asked.

"I don't know exactly, Harry suggested to The Forum advisor, that Paul should teach me."

"Okay… then you'll teach me?"

"Not exactly, I think I will get to see and I will only get to tell you."

"See? You're going to watch someone have _sex_?" I asked shocked.

"I don't know yet. We will find out. And I wouldn't use the phrase _bedding your wife_ around her. Yes, it's in the text books, but you need to remember that she isn't as sheltered as we are. I'm sure she is more familiar with sex than we are."

"What's that supposed to mean?" I ask getting angry, for some reason him implying that my future wife is not a virgin infuriates me.

"I don't mean to imply that she has had sex, I'm saying that she went to public schooling and it's quite common for them to engage in sexual acts, they are taught more about it in school too. Knowledge is power."

"You're not easing my worries," I sigh.

"Just relax brother and don't hold anything against her. You don't know her or her past. Nor does she know you; you will both have to learn many things." He says in that brother tone I'm beginning to dislike. It once filled me with love, comfort and safety—now I just want to shove a sock in his condescending mouth.

"I'm trying to relax, but it's all I can think about." I get up and pace, my hand running through my hair as it has countless times since the succession order was announced.

"I'm sparing with Paul later do you want to join us? He says it's a healthy release. I'm sure he just wants a good excuse to beat up a Prince, all in good fun of course." He says coming to stand in-front of me so I stop pacing, his large arms holding my shoulders firmly in a comforting gesture.

I've grown quite a bit in the last few years so I now look him in the eyes not up to him. He has large muscle mass opposed to me, he likes to lift weights for his physical requirements. Whereas I would rather run, I get to run around the palace during the night hours, or I have to use a treadmill during the day. Someday I hope to run outside, but despite our loving nature, there are still those that have been tainted by outside forces so security must be tight at all times.

When I was younger I ran over a small palace worker during the morning hours and wasn't allowed to run until it was later and everyone had gone home. I got quite the lecture from my parents about the safety of not only myself but of our subjects as well. If we didn't care about their safety then we didn't deserve to be rulers. There were many of these lessons over the years.

I considered Emmett's proposal only for a moment before I agreed that I did need release. He said he would come get me in my room when Paul arrived. I mentioned that I wanted to lie down for a little bit and try to de-stress, but really I would go and pull that picture out from behind my history books and gaze into those glorious big brown eyes of my hopeful wife.

**~*MOH*~**

**EmPOV**

Paul retrieved us only an hour after I sent Edward to his room. My poor brother is so tense over the recent events, that I thought it would be beneficial to him. Paul led us to an underground floor of the palace that I've only seen once, and by the look on Edwards face he hadn't seen it at all. Most of the palace security lived near or in the palace in case of emergencies. The room we were in was large and the floor covered in mats used for wrestling, it was dark and the only lighting Paul turned on as a few directly over the mat we were using. It made for an eerie atmosphere; the outside of the room was so dark I couldn't even see the corners. I had a weird feeling that I was being watched but soon Paul had us working and I forgot all about it.

Paul was patient with us having never fought before. He showed us the right way to do things and slowly added more as the time went. We were all sweaty and beat by the time Paul had told us we had enough. Edward was relieved at that point, he said his arms were hurting about half way through. We were sitting down on the mats and drinking water, stinking like pigs, sweat still dropping off of us.

"Edward, are you tired now?" Paul asked after guzzling a whole bottle of water and opening another. Edward had started whining about his arms shortly after we started, see he likes to run, not much strength in his arms.

"Blessed Rebirth yes," he said sounding exhausted.

"Good, then you are too tired to be stressed. You good?" He asks turning to me.

"That was great, need to do it more. Although I think we will all be sore tomorrow." I said smiling and wiping my forehead with a towel. I won't do that again, I lifted my arm and got a smell of myself and about passed out. I'll have to go give mom a good bear hug after this and enjoy her trying to squirm out of my arms. She always hated the smell of us boys, telling us she couldn't wait for our pretty wives and their pretty smells to help balance us out. We would always laugh at that.

"I won't, and I still have to spar with Bella tomorrow since she didn't do any of the physical requirements during testing," he says completely relaxed laying down on the mats.

"Who is Bella?" Edward asks, Paul and I look at each other in fear, mine more of a scowl at Paul's epic mistake.

"A friend," he says.

"A _special_ friend?" he says with entirely too much emphasis on special, like a child would do.

"Yes, she is a special friend, but not like that. Just a friend, she had some medical issues during testing and The Forum decided that the physical requirements could be completed when she was well."

"I'm sorry to hear that, I hope she is better. And I'm sorry for implying, that was rude of me." He says shyly, just like Bella would do. She is always polite and extremely apologetic if she says something wrong, even most of the time she doesn't say much at all.

"Prince Edward you did not offend, it's just a _very_ sensitive subject."

I stayed quiet so that Edward wouldn't pick up any clues from me. Our whole family spends a lot of our time together and it is near impossible to lie to each other. Not that I like lying to him one bit, but there are rules for a reason and I must follow them.

No more words were said on the subject and we all started walking up to the main floors of the palace. We came into a long hallway with a doorway to go up the stairs.

"I'm going to let you guys go up alone, and I'll head back this way to my quarters to shower. Are you ready for some education tonight Emmett?"

"Tonight? So soon?" I ask swallowing thickly.

"Are you scared?" Paul laughs.

"Intimidated yes, scared no. I just didn't think it would happen so soon."

"Oh your sex education," Edwards says. "Are you guys going to watch some videos or something?" Edward joins the conversation excitedly when he figures out what we are talking about.

"No Edward," Paul says with a chuckle and turns to me. "I have to fly back late tonight, and I'm assuming you are going to hitch a ride on the way?" He asks me with a hidden meaning.

"Yeah The Forum wants me to spend as much time at commission as I can. So what are we doing tonight?" I ask.

"I lined up one of my regular companions and Quil and Embry are going to run close security for you tonight. I thought it would be good to start tonight, I don't know when we will be back here and you need to learn soon."

"You're right. Give me an hour to shower and check in with my parents?" I suggested to him, when he agreed I led Edward up the stairs back to the main floor.

"You _are_ going to see someone have _sex_." He says sex as if it's a forbidden word and so quiet that I barely hear him. I don't want to discuss this with him yet, fearful myself of what I might see tonight.

"Let's go give mom a big smelly hug." I said mischievously and soon the sounds of my mother's distaste and my father's laughter filled the palace walls. If only Jasper were here to enjoy this with us.

**~*MOH*~**

Paul came and got me with Embry and Quil following behind and took me to a small military building on the outskirts of the Capital. We are somewhere deep in the engineers sector of the city, sapphire blue decorations on door fronts and the light poles are decorated just the same.

"You were curious at how a magnet house is run so we arranged to have an official to come and go through the entire process with us." He says as we climb out of the large military vehicle Paul had acquired for our use tonight.

"Okay." Not sure what else I can say. Quil and Embry are quiet, eyes like hawks looking around in every direction, on official duty.

We walk into the small building with very few windows and I take a look around, Paul stays with me and Quil and Embry run throughout the house checking each room.

"Clear." They both yell out and then Paul starts to turn some small lamps on around the large open area in front of us.

"This is unused living quarters that are used for visiting military family. Harry thought that it was secure enough for our little _lesson_ tonight." Paul says looking around the room. There are a few simple couches that have seemed to be moved and pressed to the far edges of the room and a large padded table had been set up in the middle of the space. "They should be here soon," he says looking down at his watch.

"Are we doing whatever we are doing right _here_?" I ask seeing the table.

"Yes, I didn't want it to seem too personal to you, figured a less-intimate setting would be better," he says kindly.

"I appreciate that, I'm not sure how I truly feel about this. I thought the first woman I would _see_ would be my wife." I said sitting down in a chair, my fingers pinching the bridge of my nose.

"I understand how you feel because it's the way you were raised. I was raised to treasure a woman and not make her feel less just because of the things she wants. And if she wants to feel pleasure, I'm glad to give it to her." He says very smugly, lightening the tone.

A knock was heard on the door and Paul goes to stand in-front of me, between me and the door, while Quil takes up position on the wall lateral to the door and Embry answers the door.

A tall woman wearing an all red outfit with artistically placed holes walks in with a shorter woman with dark black hair and copper skin walks quickly in behind her.

"Were you followed at all, or tell anyone what you would be doing tonight?" Embry asks.

"No sir," they both answer. Paul takes leave of me to approach the two women.

He grasps the tall woman in red with both of his hands, "Thank you so much for helping us out tonight and we appreciate your discretion." She only nods in acceptance.

He turns to the smaller woman and his face lights up before engulfing her in a very intimate embrace. Their bodies line up perfectly, as if they can't get enough contact between them. No kisses are shared and no words are said, they just held each other for quite some time before the official in red taps them on the shoulder.

"We should get started before this goes any further," she says to them with a sharp heavily accented voice.

"Yes of course, Madam Zafrina may I introduce you to Second Select Prince Emmett. Prince Emmett this is Madam Zafrina of the Capital Magnet House." He introduced us very formally, before grabbing the other around the waist and lightens while he speaks not to me, but into the eyes of the long haired woman on his hip. "And this beautiful girl is Miss Kebi, and she has agreed to help us out tonight."

"It's wonderful to meet you both," I say standing and walking to them. They cover their hearts and bow to me as is the custom salute to royals.

"Prince Emmett, when Paul approached me and told me of the situation I was more than happy to agree to help. Whatever I can do for Society pleasures me greatly." Zafrina says to me, her eyes a mysterious color of green, kind of hollow like looking through the lens of a camera. Her red dress accentuates her figure amply.

"I would do anything for you, and who could say no to Paul?" she says while giggling, gazing into his eyes kindly. We all laugh a bit at that.

"Let's get started shall we?" Zafrina asks and puts down a case on the padded table that I hadn't noticed her carrying before. We all nod our heads and approach the table where Zafrina has pulled out two tablets and a larger black zippered case. She hands each tablet to Paul and Kebi. "Please use your society I.D. to log in and review your flavors please."

Paul tilts his tablet towards me so I can observe what he is doing. He enters his I.D. and password into the screen and then a menu screen pops up. I briefly see options for Medical History, Flavors, Locations, Work History, and Discipline before Paul presses on Flavors. A large list with boxes and check marks next to each line shows up and he lets me scroll through the varying options and clicks on a box marked 3rd party viewed participation consent.

"I'm not usually game to people watching me, but for you and the greater good I think I can make an exception," he says to me. At the bottom of the list is a button title confirm and after he presses that the list dims and a list of things that are different on his and Kebi's list are displayed in bold red lettering.

"These are the things that are not to be done since we both do not consent. If we don't follow these guidelines then disciplinary actions have to take place. That is Madam Zafrina's specialty," he says lightly before lowering his voice. "Don't cross the lines," he says to me seriously.

"Prince Emmett since we don't want this to be documented with your involvement, so you must verbally agree not to abuse the terms that Kebi and Paul have set forth. You must all agree on anything involving your participation before you should proceed. Do you understand?" She asks me fiercely.

"Yes Madam." I say swallowing thickly, my voice an octave too high with fear. I understand why Paul was so adamant that I shouldn't _cross the lines_ as he put it.

"Necks please." Zafrina states while opening the black case, in it a piece of medical equipment, a small black box with a dimly lit display on it. She takes a type of cartridge out of the case and attaches it to the top of the case. Kebi moves her hair to the side and bares her next to Zafrina and after wiping her neck with a swab she presses the small black box to the side Kebi's neck behind her ear and presses a side button. We hear a hiss a snap and then a beeping sound and Zafrina removes the device and reads the display, smiling slightly before connecting the device to tablet Kebi is using with a thin retractable cord.

"Her test is recorded each time and syncs up with her account, in-case someone should get curious about her past." Paul tells me quietly before having the same procedure done to him after Zafrina inserts a new cartridge. After she disconnects his tablet, he shows me the results, which is a list of diseases and negative results for all of them.

She holds the machine up to me now expectantly. "It's your turn now Prince Emmett, don't be scared," she says to me with amusement. I didn't think that I would need to do this too and I must show the confusion on my face when she speaks up again, "_Every_ participant must be tested."

"I wouldn't call me a participant as much as an observer." I said honestly. Paul laughs, Kebi smiles and bows her head to her chest, and Zafrina just looks at me with the same amusement as before. "I don't understand."

"Okay so you know basic anatomy from your texts, right?" I nod my head. Do you think you can advise your brother on his wedding night with the knowledge you have now?" Paul asks me.

"Of course not, but I thought I would be watching, I'm not sure how I feel about actual participation." I say getting worried, I am a prince and it is expected of me to remain a virgin until my commission is completed. Society needed structure and rules. A royal breaking the rules would cause unnecessary distention. Imagine the commotion a royal bastard would cause.

"You won't be _participating_ as you may think, but there is a matter of things you can't learn without feeling first hand. Your virtue will not be compromised and everything that we will do tonight has been approved King Carlisle and The Forum. Believe me… I endured quite the lecture on the events of tonight," Paul says kindly looking into my eyes.

"Oh, okay." I say lamely. "You had me worried there for a moment." I bare my neck to Zafrina and the whole process is virtually painless except for the tiny pin prick which immediately went away. Zafrina shows me the display on the device and declares me clean.

Without a word Zafrina packs up her equipment and proceeds to a chair in the foyer that is unseen from where the table is placed in the room. I turn to watch her leave the area and take a moment to settle myself before turning around back to Paul and Kebi.

I turn around and stand staring wordlessly. During the few moments that I had my back turned Kebi had disrobed, completely naked and was lain out on the table. Her knees were bent and her legs spread, arm behind her head propping it up and looking at me curiously, her breasts with their copper skin and dark nipples lay soft against her body. The area between her legs that was supposed to be covered in hair was bare leaving nothing to the imagination. Paul stood at the end of the table looking down at her in hunger, his shirt off and haphazardly thrown over the chair in the corner. He turns his head to me with a wide grin.

"Prince Emmett," he says to get my attention on him and not the nude woman lying on the table in front of me. He has a wicked smile on his face, complete amusement before he speaks his next words that garner my speechlessness to continue.

"Have you ever seen a vagina before?"

Kebi laughs haughtily.

What have I gotten myself into?

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><p><strong>AN: BAHAHAHAHA I'm so terribly sorry for ending the chapter here, but I just couldn't resist!  
>I've been asked several times on how to pronounce my name. It's EE-fah. Don't ask, just know its gaelic and I can't explain it to you lol.<br>You guys had some AMAZING and sick and cruel punishments to be dealt with. I LOVED every single one of them. Don't be suprised if your suggestion ends up in the story!**

**Question of the Day: If you could forget everything that you know and have been taught, what is your honest opinion on the sexual freedom that is in this story?**

**Fic Rec Time! ****Into The Great Wide Open by Laurie Whitlock & 71Star  
><strong>Bella is having one hell of a day but she gets an interesting letter and decides to follow through with what the letter says. Rated M for language, lemons and just because when Star and I get together, things get rowdy LOL.

**It's only one chapter in, but I bet its going to be one that I wait for in my inbox.**


	17. Chapter 17

**All mistakes are my own.  
>I do not own twilight, but I do have 2 girls hyped up rice krispie treats 15 minutes before bed.<strong>

* * *

><p><strong>EmPOV<strong>

Blessed Rebirth, this is wrong. I turn around so I can't see her, my muscles tight, my body rigid.

"Prince Emmett," Paul calls, walking around to come in front of me. "Are you okay?" He asks concern heavy in his voice.

"This isn't right," I say quietly yet forceful.

"What isn't right about it?"

"I shouldn't have seen her like that. It's not proper," I say.

"Remember when I told you that we don't judge each other for our sexual preferences?"

"Yes, I remember. It was just after the crash, you were talking about… about… those things." I choked out, not being able to say the actual words.

Paul smiles at me gently, "Yes, that's right. Do not judge Kebi for wanting to show herself to you. She is a willing participant and you just showed her great disrespect by turning around. You knew what you were getting into. Remember that this is required of your duties. Do this for your brother so that he may be able to please his wife."

My eyes widen, I thought that I was disrespecting her by looking at her, not the opposite. "I didn't mean anything by the gesture, it's just a lot to take in."

"Then turn around and look at her." I do as he says, she looks up to my shyly, a small timid smile on her face. A complete 180 as to the way she carried herself before, confident and strong. I see that I have had a negative influence on her self-esteem. And instantly regret making her feel that way.

"I'm so sorry… I do not know… I…" I give up and look to Paul with pleading eyes.

"Look at her, what do you see?"

"She's beautiful, I never thought that under all the clothing that a woman's body could be so beautiful," I answer truthfully. My fingers twitch, wanting to touch the curves of her breasts and the smooth skin of her stomach.

"Then tell her that, here is your first lesson. To make a woman beautiful you have to make _her_ believe she is beautiful. Self-confidence doesn't come easy, especially if someone says or does something to question her confidence," he says to me pointedly.

"Won't that make her feel like I just want her body?" I ask.

"Good question, let's assume the wooing is over for the purpose of your lesson, you already have her heart, now she is spread before you, what do you do?" he nudges me towards her. I walk over cautiously very aware of how my body is reacting, my erection tight in my pants. It's still an awkward feeling being aroused by a woman; we had it drilled into our heads from a young age that we are meant for one woman. I didn't see many of them before, not sexually at least, until I met Rosalie. I shake my head clearing Rosalie out; she has no business being here right now.

I approach Kebi nervously, trying not to look anywhere but her eyes which are locked onto mine. My fingers gently ghost from her feet over her silky legs, the sides of her hips, the middle of her stomach, and between her breasts careful not to touch her too intimately, but more boldly than I thought I could. My body finally reaches near her head, and my hand cups her face gently. I lick my lips and give a hint of a smile, "You are so beautiful, I'm sorry if I made you feel any differently. Please forgive my ignorance."

She nods wordlessly lust heavy in her eyes now as Paul moves to the other side of the table and grabs her leg and pulls it out and opens her up again. "You okay?" he asks her.

I barely hear her say yes, her chest heaving as Paul moves his hand down from her knee to her thigh caressing the whole way. "Lesson 2, her pleasure comes first, especially your first time since you will probably blow really quickly. I need you to touch right here and tell me what you feel." He says as his hand moves down between her legs and spreads her soft pink flesh open.

I look to Kebi and she nods her head at me, taking a cue from Paul I touch her softly on her legs and slide my hand down so that she wouldn't be startled. Her flesh prickles under my fingers and the nearer I get to her honey pot the warmer she gets. I stroke the taught skin just under her folds coming up to her entrance, Kebi's breath rushes out—Paul grins.

"She likes that, now what do you feel?" He encourages me.

"It's soft and warm," I say.

"Yes, but not wet, she isn't ready for any penetration. Inside, she is not smooth, it's rough and ribbed—and while it feels fantastic, it will grip when it's dry and is not at all pleasurable."

"Okay so what's next?" I ask focused and eager to learn.

"Well, since you are concerned with her pleasure first there are several ways to make her ready for you before any penetration. Every woman is different, but most enjoy foreplay. Simple touches like the one you did while approaching her turned her on, didn't it Kebi?"

"So much," she says breathlessly, her body has begun squirming under our hands. I caress her knee and slide my hand up her hip and back down, getting higher each time until my knuckles are hitting the underside of her breasts.

"You like two men touching you don't you?" Paul asks her.

"Oh yes," her back arches when my knuckles graze her breast again, her nipples tighten and become hard.

"If you're not sure what she wants or likes, you need to ask. You can't always go off of body clues, pain and pleasure can have the same cues. You are doing fine, just do what feels natural. Bets are if you will enjoy doing it to her, she will enjoy it too."

On the next pass up of my hands I squeeze Kebi's side lightly, looking into her eyes. I touch under her breast and silently ask her permission to move on, unable to find my voice. My breaths are fast, hair standing up on the back of my neck. She nods her head rapidly, eager for more. Paul is holding her leg up with one arm and ghosting over the crease where her leg meets her hip, her muscles twitching each time.

I splay my large hand out on her tiny flat stomach, taking up much of the room before sliding my palm up to hold her breast. My fingers go to the outside, taking most of the weight of her breast and my thumb grips her gently, a sigh releases from her mouth when my thumb rubs over her hardened nipple. I lift her and feel the weight of her breast and experiment on the pressure that I can use. Paul offers his advice when he sees what I am doing.

"Each woman will differ on how they like their breasts played with, and that will change with her cycle too. They may be painful and sensitive at times and normal at others, don't ever go grabbing roughly, work up to it and listen to her and watch her."

I squeeze a little harder and a moan escapes her and seems to move straight to my dick, it throbs in my pants.

"Kissing is another part you could explore, although I think you should save that for your wife," I nod. "The neck, behind the ears, her breasts, sides of her torso, tops of her hips, behind the knee and some woman are very erotic with their feet. Kebi is not, she is rather ticklish," he laughs lightly. To demonstrate he touches her softly and her foot jerks and she giggles.

"Stop that Paul. I've enjoyed everything you've done so far Emmett, Paul is right you're a natural—usually it's awkward hands and fumbling." She says eyes heavy.

"Shush woman, I'm giving _the_ lesson here," he grins playfully. "Okay just so you know, when you kiss her body… do not slobber. Just kiss her gently, only tiny touches of your tongue, and when you do that gently blow on the wet spot and the cooling will drive her nuts." He demonstrates on the side of her breast closest to him, my hand still sliding over her skin, the other holding her leg up and open like Paul is with the other. He back arches when he blows on her skin, her nipple growing in pleasure.

"Now, reach your hand down to her pussy and tell me what you feel?" Paul nods his head down to where is hand is rubbing her leg and outside of her folds.

My fingers delve down and slide between her folds until I get to her entrance where I find silky smooth wetness. I groan at this discovery, my balls tuck into my body and I nearly come in my pants. "Feels nice right?" He asks.

"Yes," Kebi and I say at the same time.

"Slide back up and find her clit." I do as he says and I remember my basic anatomy and I move up and under her hood until I feel the tiny hard button, he back arches and her toes curl. "That's it," he coos at her. "Her clit is a powerful sexual weapon—you can use it for foreplay, for getting her off, or for finishing her when you are inside her. Rub it in small circles."

Kebi is moaning loudly now, her hands are gripped onto the sides of the table, her head back and neck exposed. "You like that, don't you?" I ask her, my voice low, slightly shaky but surprisingly confident.

"Yes," she moans.

"She is getting close, when I tell you I want you to put your finger in her and feel her come around you, keep your thumb working her clit until she starts to come down." Paul reaches up and pinches her nipple in between his fingers and thumbs hard. Harder than I thought would be pleasurable, it looked like it hurt.

"Oh fuck now," she screams. My finger dives into her and I feel the ridges that Paul was talking about, the silky wetness and the intense heat. She takes a deep breath and holds hit, her back arches off the table, her arm grabs mine and holds it into her, my thumb barely able to move on her clit now. Her legs twitch in rhythm with the pulses around my finger. When her breath lets out and her body relaxes I stop movement on her clit, but keep my finger deep in her.

"I think we have one more thing for you to do before I get to demonstrate some other ways to pleasure her. Are you still okay with it Kebi?" Paul asks her, about what I'm not sure.

"Yes, it would give me great pleasure." She says out-of-breath.

"Okay Emmett, take that finger and put it in your mouth. Taste her. Each woman tastes different, and as long as she takes care of herself, it always tastes good." I'm not entirely sure that I would like this idea and I would have avoided it if it weren't for Kebi sitting up on her elbows and looking at me lustfully.

I tentatively stick my whole finger in my mouth and it touches my tongue, instantly my mouth clamps down and my tongue begins licking every drop of her. She is so sweet, like honey. I could not have imagined it this good. A groan leaves my throat and I am again fighting off an orgasm. When I finish I look towards Kebi who is grinning widely, her knees have fallen to the sides no longer held up by Paul and I.

"Now you won't be afraid of the taste when you do _this_." Paul gets on the table effortlessly and his face lands in between her legs and he begins licking and sucking. Her moans pick up again, her hands reach down her body in a rush. One grabs hold of his hair and the other splays on her stomach momentarily before caressing her breast and pinching her nipple. I try to watch what Paul is doing, and I figure out that he isn't doing just one thing, he is using a combination of moves to make her squirm. He flicks her clit with his tongue, and then he sucks it into his mouth before nibbling gently on it. Then he will lick her from her entrance to her clit and back down before his tongue delves deeper into her. His fingers pump in and out of her when he pays attention to her clit again. Growling he pushes her, "come on baby, give it to me," and at his lusty words she became undone again.

Twitching, screaming and hair pulling until she finally relaxes, Paul licks his lips, her essence still covering his chin, glistening in the soft light of the room.

"Should we show him a few positions before we send him back to the Palace?" He asks Kebi, who nods generously. "She wasn't sure if she wanted to share this with you, but we kept the possibility open and I knew if you were gentle she would allow you this opportunity."

"Okay." I say lamely, no other words coming to mind. I'm pretty sure he means to show me actual penetration, but I don't want to sound like a moron so I keep quiet. Paul calls for Zafrina again and with Kebi covered with a small sheet she comes strolling into the room with her black case again.

"We are going to have intercourse." Paul says simply, only having eyes for Kebi while he brushes his fingers over her collarbone, she smiles up to him lovingly.

"Are all parties in agreement?" Zafrina asks.

"Umm…" I start.

"Prince Emmett is going to observe different positions that are beneficial for penetration then he is going to take his leave while Kebi and I enjoy each other."

I nod my head, a little nervous. Zafrina then takes a purple vial and inserts it into an injector—much like the one I used after the crash, and she bares Kebi's hip from under the sheet before pressing the plunger down.

"What's that?" I ask.

"It's birth control, and extra vitamins and stuff to help my body fight off any infections. Paul may be clean, but I am still inserting a foreign object into my body, just to be safe."

"Do you not take oil?" I ask, knowing that all women are required to use a cream called oil, applying it to the skin under their breasts every morning.

"I do, but this is just extra precaution. There has been instances that oil hasn't been 100% effective and while this is okay for married couples, not for me and Paul, _and_ most other un-committed participants. It protects against deceit and protects against crime. A woman might just stop taking her oil to get around the birthing laws. And while she will be punished the male may have been unwilling to this, he doesn't have a choice but to be a parent to his child that wasn't consensual, _or_ Society sanctioned."

Society was strong, but it was also fragile enough that a simple imbalance could make it fail. Each couple must apply to be parents, and the decisions are left up to The Forum and their infinite data.

"Okay I understand now, thank you." I say, and Zafrina goes back to the entry way.

The sheet is taken off of Kebi and her flesh prickles with the temperature change. Paul rubs her body briskly until she is smooth and relaxed again. He unbuttons his pants and steps out of them, before standing bare at the end of the table rubbing Kebi's calves.

"Since this table is a perfect height I will show you this one first. He gripped her ankles and pulls her down the table all while Kebi giggles. Her butt is barely slipping off the edge of the table and her legs are on either side of Paul's torso. I try to avoid looking directly at him feeling like it is an invasion of privacy but I do get glimpses of his cock. He is large just as I am and surprisingly that makes me feel more comfortable since I'll be able to see how not to harm a woman. I've heard that it can hurt more the larger the man is.

"Okay she is still wet but your dick is much bigger than your finger and you will need to lubricate some before entering her. You can rub your dick in her folds until everything is nice and slick," he demonstrates, purposely hitting her clit and watching her tense each time. "You can use a bottled lubrication, although if you did your foreplay enough you should be good unless the woman is older and is affected by menopause, but that's something you can learn later. Last but _least_ in my book, you can use your own spit, but most women hate watching a guy spit on his dick, at least in my experience." Kebi's face is scrunched up and she is shaking her head at me. Point taken.

"Oh, if your woman sucks your cock and leaves enough spit on you, then that's more than okay." Kebi nods her head. "But she isn't comfortable showing you that."

"That's okay, isn't that something that she would be taught?" I ask.

"My mother talked to me about it when I came of age, so usually," her voice cracking each time Paul's dick touches her clit.

"Okay."

Paul grabs his dick and presses down on it, slipping because of how wet she is, but eventually he gets the job done and his dick slides slowly into her and he lets out a deep groan. He takes a few breaths and blows them out slowly.

"Shit that feels good, give me a minute." They hold still, for what I'm not sure. "Okay, so in this position you can get pretty deep, and if it doesn't feel good for her just change the position of her legs." He demonstrated her me, he hooked her knees with his arms, then pulled her legs up straight and together with her feet next to his head, and then bent her legs again but pressed the back of her thighs down to either side of her breasts, making her hips jut up and open. All the while he is slowly pumping in and out of her with her moaning and mewling out in pleasure.

"You can do this on your knees too, okay slide back up sweetheart on your side." She does what she asks and he straddles her bottom leg while he lifts the top one to her chest and slides in her again. "This is good and if you want a good squeeze slide both legs up and together, but it's not very deep for her." And again he shows me, then he has her turn her chest to the table, he hips still sideways and bent, her arms reach out to the top of the bed and grip it hard. With the leverage she is able to meet his thrusts in the middle and they seem to get carried away for a moment.

"Shit sorry, okay, hands and knees sweetheart." He pulls out of her just long enough for her to move and she backs up to him and he inserts his dick into her hot hole again. "Doggy style, with variations," he says out-of-breath, grunting he pounds into her harder while still maneuvering her in different positions. He presses a hand to her upper back, until her breasts and shoulders meet the table, he head to the side, ass still in the air and jiggling every time Paul pushes into her. He moves her legs one by one from the outside, to the inside of his legs then presses her hips down, and she falls down to the table harshly him following closely as not to fall out of her. Kebi's body is flat on the table, and his dick seems to disappear between her ass checks, and it makes me think of the conversation about anal. Before now I had thought the act to be disgusting, but now I find the act very erotic, but I won't ask about it tonight.

"Oh fuck, okay let's show him cowgirl then missionary and then he can leave." Paul looks pained, his face furrowed when he pulls out. Kebi gets off the table and Paul flops down on his back and Kebi climbs on top of him backwards for the reverse cowgirl, I'm told. And then turns around to face him. She bounces on his dick, her breasts bouncing right along with her. Paul takes one in each hand as she rides him.

"Stop stop stop," he says in a rush before she crawls off and then lays down where Paul was. He situates himself between her legs that are willing spread open. His hips meet hers, cock settled tight into her. "Okay this is missionary, lead with this, especially for a virgin so you can watch her and see what she is okay with. After you master this you can move onto more exotic positions. We can talk about that later, now you must leave," he says breathless.

He didn't even give me a chance for me to leave before he starts pounding her fiercely. Embry and Quil are waiting for me near the entrance of the house; Zafrina is sitting there too and reading a paper.

"Good night Prince Emmett, I hope that this experience was up to your expectations." She stands and bows when we walk out of the building. Embry and Quil look around the area attentively before we all get into the vehicle and drive off.

They are quiet but I can see the smirks on their faces, just waiting for the perfect chance to say something. It stayed quiet for some distance before I thought of a question, though it didn't sound as _stupid_ in my head as it did when it left my mouth, and I wasn't expecting the answer I got.

"Is that what I should call it… a pussy?" I ask.

"Sure," says Quil, "but it has many names."

"Like?" I just had to open my mouth. Quil and Embry begin a long list of names spurting them off back and forth, casually.

"Cunt. Snatch. Pussy. Meat Wallet. Cunny. Clam. Gash. Muff. Vag. Penis Fly Trap. Cave of Wonders. Baby Cannon. Pink Canoe. Stench Trench. Juicebox. Pink Taco. Cock Socket. Handwarmer. Oh and Tampon Tunnel."

"Ooo, I like that one," Quil says to Embry.

"What's a tampon?" I ask curiously.

At that, Quil and Embry can't hold in their laughter, although I'm not sure how they could while reciting all those ridiculous names. They laugh for a long time, Embry cackles, but Quil tries to calm down while doing this "Woooo, woooo, woooo," sound that I have to laugh at myself, and then we are all laughing harder at the hilarity of it all.

We calm down pulling up to the palace, and before we get out of the car Embry turns to me in the back and with a smile on his face. "It's from way back when, they don't use them anymore. It was a piece of cotton with a string attached that they inserted during their menstruation."

"Huh, what do they do know?"

"Seriously, did no one teach you these things?" Quil groans from the front.

I pointed to myself, "basic anatomy. I know what happens during a cycle, and why they have one, but I guess I never thought of the clean up."

"Well they can stop menstruation in older women that don't want to bear any more children, but in younger girls and women, they insert a flexible cup that traps all the blood."

"Okay… gross."

They laugh at me again and we go back in to the palace. I decide that a shower would be good, and then I pack my bags for our return trip to the gardens. I specifically avoid Edward, I need time to think all this over before I talk to him.

What an interesting night.

* * *

><p><strong>AN Phew, that was fun. Seems like Emmett is coming out of her shell, oh my baby boy is growing up. Wonder what this will do to his confidence.**

**Up next, Bella calls home, the evil snake shows her face, Bella kicks Paul's ass, and Emmett gets booted in the balls.**

**Question of the Day - Was that hot or not?**


	18. Angry Review Reply

This is a general response to the many guest reviews that seem to be very confused about my story. For as much time as I spend making sure that I get all the right details in the right spots, I seem to have done a poor job; or you missed them. The main theme of the reviews is the anger that Kebi is being commoditized.

1st I failed to convey that the sexual freedom that exists in my story is just that, sexual freedom. Kebi is there by free-will, is not paid, forced, or brain washed. She is not of a minority, but of a majority. Citizens are free to conduct sexual arrangements as they see fit.

2nd For some reason many think that virginity is prized. It's not. It's not even a requirement for Prime, not sure where you got that. But it does cut some red-tape as to how soon the Prime and Prince can marry. They have their customs, and they will follow them. One person even said that if virginity is prized in the women than the men should have to abide as well. Funny you should say that, because the Princes are the only ones that are required to be virgins as is customary etiquette for the royals. Who is bitching, because they aren't. Bella could have gone out and fucked Mike Newton, but she didn't want to, she chose not to. Big whoop. Even the big nasty bitches are virgins, including Tanya and Heidi.

3rd People are not matched like "Prime Cattle" as one reviewer named. Yes commission is a matching of sorts but they aren't forced into it. The prince gets to choose in the end, but being as The Forum is a super brain far better than anything you can imagine, they have a sense of what is going on and are rarely wrong. Same with the Prime, she will be given a chance to refuse when the time comes. Other citizens who choose so can have their names put into a hat so-to-speak, only if they want. Think of our ENTIRE planet with limited population. There are small "home" groups all over the world, and people don't travel very often. They leave nature to nature and keep themselves contained, not to a point of feeling strangled or kept, but contained all the same. So when someone hasn't found who they want to spend the rest of their lives with they can entire this "matching" process. Think of it as . They sign up willingly, their "data" is their profile, and they can still click no to a date. This was going to be all covered with Tia's side storyline, but ya'll are impatient to let the story develop.

4th and least because I found this review the funniest. "Have you ever tasted yourself, women are tangy not sweet." Answer: I have indeed tasted myself, do it often, my husband loves smearing my "Juices" as you called it on my lips before letting me suck it off his finger. And I disagree/agree with your statement. Yes, there is a level of tanginess that I didn't feel the need to point out, but my arousal—and I'm talking about when I'm hornier than stegosaurus, is really fucking sweet (I suggest eating lots of fruits). Since I would never describe the taste of semen as salty, because I honestly do not ever taste salt (my husband eats A LOT of oranges and apples, or it's so far down my throat that I don't notice) I would not describe a woman as tangy. And before you say that I am concluding a woman's taste on only my own, I'm am a bisexual. I am monogamously married for 10 years now, but I will never forget having my face buried between a lady's legs, nor will forget the taste of it.

I took a lot of criticism when I was younger for my sexual preferences and I rather enjoy the thought of sexual freedom that is in this story without judgment. Emmett just needs reminding sometimes not to judge.

The confusion is entirely my fault—obviously since it's my story. It will be reworked and details fixed in the future, but for now I wish to say one thing to all the guest reviewers, LOG IN, I love having conversations about my story, good or bad. This will be the last 'chapter' that will address guest reviews and I hold all the power to publish them. If you wanted to hurt me with your mean words, well, you failed. You could poison me, blow up my helicopter, and do a many other things to me and I would still stand here and tell my story.


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